Paradox
by Someonerandome
Summary: Post Karzem. A dark future awaits the rebels, but one of them is determined to change that. Of course, messing with time isn't exactly devoid of complicated challenges and danger... ...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: Do we really need to go through the concept of _**FAN**_fiction?

_**A/N**_: _Alright, so I decided to repost this again. I've done a bit of editing and re-working so I thought, hey. Why not? Hopefully the third time's the charm! I actually have a lot of fun with this one. Basically, its a time-travel thing and...you know what, just read it._

_Anyways, please, please, please review._

**The Future.**

Oslo felt smug as he walked down the dark hallway that was illuminated solely by the gloomy florescent light-bulbs in the ceiling. The metal walls and floors made is footsteps echo in a way that he found satisfying, mainly because it unnerved those trapped within this only slightly modernized dungeon. But then again, this was a very special visit. This was the first time he had visited her in quite a while and he pondered what tactic to make.

The past few years had been good to him. It was very ironic, one might even say laughable to think of the victorious position the rebels had been in so very long ago just after that disastrous defeat at Karzem. Well, they'd had their moments of glory and had no doubt enjoyed them.

Then Oslo had made his move: a series of moves as a matter of fact. And now the rebellion had been well and truly crushed. There were still a few small gangs of punk anarchists, but they were beyond insignificant. They couldn't even manage to raid anything more than the most crippled of small water shipments, barely enough to survive on, forget make a statement. No, Skyland was now his!

Except for one tiny little detail.

Two of that central rebel crew had eluded capture somehow. It would be the most insignificant little blip if it weren't for the identities of the elusive duo. By all rights an old man and a teenaged girl shouldn't be able to evade him so well with such large bounties, both legitimate and shady, on their heads.

He mulled this over as he entered the room. It was dark, of course. All the cells were kept dark regardless of whether or not it was a seijin occupant. It was just another of the many tactics utilized to try and erode their spirits. It was also rather useful when it came time for an interrogation. Prisoners would be locked in a lightless room for days on end and then brought into another room with a bright light shining directly in their eyes. It did nothing for their sight of course, but that wasn't something the Sphere particularly cared about, after all, it was meant to make them more…cooperative when it came to answering questions.

When Oslo strolled in he made his choice on how to proceed. The prisoner looked terrible, of course. They would have to fix her up again soon. She was sitting in a chair with restraints attaching her wrists and feet to the legs and armrests of her seat, but clearly she had only been transferred there recently judging by slight red glisten on the chains and manacles swaying from the ceiling. The fact that what he could see of her wrists were chafed raw and bloody only strengthened this suspicion.

The woman was sagged against the chair, unconscious—or at least only semi-conscious, her now shoulder-length hair falling over her eyes and clinging to her clammy scalp. Her wrists were blistered and bleeding from her time suspended by them and she had bruises along her face that almost made her captor wince. Almost. Perhaps he should have left the warden with more specific instructions pertaining to the methods in which they were permitted to interrogate her. Then again, she could always have kept it from getting this far. Besides, it could have been worse. This time she didn't have any broken bones even if a few of her fingers did look a little swollen. She shivered a little and stirred as he approached. Kneeling by her chair he gently pushed the hair out of her eyes, causing a groan to escape her dry, cracked lips.

He would use the 'kind' approach today. It was not always his favourite, but sometimes it certainly had its uses. If nothing else, it would often throw the prisoner off balance. He pondered the benefits of carefully calculated courtesy as he brought some water to him with his powers and poured it into a cup which he carefully put to her lips. She coughed and gagged at the first few drops but then drank thirstily. After she had swallowed half of it he beckoned gently for her to wake up. When she took a while to comply he turned towards the door.

"Has she been drugged?" he inquired. The Guard at the door nodded. It was another common place occurrence. Various cocktails could often loosen stubborn tongues or confuse the mind enough that essential details might slip without the informant realizing it, or sometimes they worked to intensify alertness and therefore pain.

"Did she say anything?" was his next question. This time the guard shook his head. Typical. But, then again, he knew first hand of her stubbornness. At that point the prisoner seemed to come round enough to recognize him. She went rigid and pressed herself against the back of the chair as much as she could to create a little more distance between the two of them, not an overly effective move but it sent the message it was intended to.

"What…are you…doing here?" she croaked, her tone venomous.

"I'm here to take you to the infirmary. You can have-"

"What? A…nice, hot meal and a bath?" she said with a small struggle, her tongue stumbling over the words due to the drugs in her system. In spite of this the sarcasm still came through very clear. "I kn-know why you're really here… and you're…wasting your time." The seijin stiffened and leaned back on his heels slightly, his demeanor changing immediately. Fine. If she refused to accept his kindness, he wouldn't offer any mercy.

"Where is your daughter?" he snarled

"To the point." She coughed in approval, her eyes opening a little more. They glared at him in the dark, filled with hate and determination. He stood and began to circle her

"You know, I hate to see you like this." He remarked.

"Bullshit." She spat, her voice gaining strength "If anyone knows of your ruthlessness it's me. Don't pretend you care whether or not I live, or suffer for that matter."

"Oh, on the contrary. I care very much. And I don't like to see you like this, or rather, I would hate for Lena to see her mother like this." He watched in satisfaction as the Prisoner stiffened.

"You're bluffing." She accused, scrambling to re-possess her wits "You haven't got her. If you did, you wouldn't be bothering with me!" The fear and desperation were evident in her tone, despite the remaining traces of defiance. Oslo smiled sardonically. She was reaching her breaking point and he knew it, and was enjoying it.

"Perhaps." He conceded with a dark glee "But you know where she is, and you will tell me."

"You've been in that light chamber a few times too many!" She retorted "It's affected more then just what was left of your moral compass. I don't know where my daughter is, I've been here for who knows how long, and if I did know I'd never tell you! She's smart, she'll keep out of your clutches, she has too much of her father in her!"

The jibe was well placed, and they both knew it. Oslo's upper lip curled.

"Very well then." He snarled, coming round to stand in front of her, towering over her in the restrained chair "We'll do this the hard way."

His assault on her mind was anything but gentle. He battered at the mental walls formed by sheer will power to try and gain access to her thoughts and memories. Her jaw clenched as she met his pale gaze furiously, her jaw clenching and her heart rate rising. Sweat formed on his brow and his muscles tensed as he struggled. This was infuriating! He was the most powerful seijin in all of skyland! (Well except for maybe one who was just an angry teenager) Yet, he couldn't get past this woman's mental barriers! They weren't like her daughter's of course, but all things considered, they were still pretty impressive.

"I learned long ago that seijin power doesn't make you invincible, or all-powerful!" Lena's mother growled through clenched teeth "It doesn't even take another seijinn to drive you out and make you stay out! Remember that, do you? We rebels certainly do!"

Neither knew how long they remained locked in that battle of wills. Every time he thought he might have found a crack that he might use to trace that one stray thought that could betray her, he encountered her mental resistance as well. She was, though, tiring. He could see and sense that. Unfortunately she was also so dammed stubborn…

Finally with a strangled cry her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she went limp again as she lost consciousness. Oslo sighed and shook his head. He'd never get anything now; she wasn't dreaming and therefore her subconscious wasn't going to be all that helpful. Frustrated, the Seijin stood and turned on his heel to stalk out of the cell. As he closed the door behind him he turned, almost as an afterthought, to the Guard.

"Have her taken to the infirmary, under 24- hour guard. Only the best are to tend to her, I want that woman to be presentable within a fortnight!" he ordered. The Guard gave a curt nod.

"Oh, and one more thing," Oslo added "Make sure that the incident with the rebellion insurgent is made common knowledge."

"Sir?" The Soldier asked, a confused frown furrowing his brow

"Surely you recall the terrorist who broke in here disguised as a guard? The…disturbed individual who attempted to kill their captured former-comrade to prevent her from telling us her daughter's whereabouts so that we might…rescue her." He finished slyly, his tone making it clear that this was not a suggestion. The buffed man at the door nodded jerkily

"Understood sir."

**Year 2252**

"Man, this is boring." Mahad groaned as he leaned on the railing overlooking the docking-bay where the St. Nazaire was parked, his chin in his hand.

"You know, there is still a shipment of supplies to be unloaded from the St. Nazaire, you could always help." Dahlia pointed out as she walked past carrying a crate.

"Help?" he asked, turning slightly and straightening

"I know, a foreign concept, right?" The Blonde Pirate replied sarcastically

"Uh…actually, I-er-I think I hear Lena calling!" he said

"No you didn't." his sister said from behind him, "You said you wanted some help with the unloading?"

"Suck up." Mahad muttered

"It's called being helpful Bro, and Mom and the Vector are waiting for something in the shipment. He asked me to pick it up for them." She informed her brother, "You know, they got some parts in too. You might be able to find something for the Hyperion Mark II."

The young rebel thought about this for a moment before replying,

"Well…I guess I could help you out a little bit, since you insist."

The two girls exchanged winks as the young man headed towards the ship.

"Hey, Wayan!" He called, hopping down the rickety metal stairwell "Need a hand?"

"Yeah, but since when do you offer your services for such menial tasks?" the dark-skinned man inquired, putting a crate down on a pile, "Ah, let me guess. You want to get into the parts shipment."

"What? Can't someone offer a little bit of friendly assistance once in a while?" Mahad demanded, feigning hurt feelings. At Wayan's raised eyebrow he shrugged

"Okay, maybe the new parts might have something to do with it…anything good this time round?"

"Well I think so. But I'll make you a deal. Help with the unloading and deliveries and I'll take you through them myself."

"Hmm…I guess that sounds fair to me." Mahad said, shaking his hand and taking the crate Wayan had put down on the top of the pile. He staggered under the weight. "Man! What's in this thing? Rocks?"

"Bricks actually. We're going to build a wall along that alleyway by Brook Street, you know, to keep from having another Cedric-and-Natalie incident. Could you bring those to the town square?" He said, referring to the time when Sanskin's two children had nearly fallen off the block while playing catch with some other kids. The edge of Puerto Angel unfortunately ran along the end of said alley, and it was a sudden drop. Cedric and Natalie had been fortunate that Celia had been there to levitate them to safety.

Mahad groaned and muttered something under his breath about 'slave labor' as he strained under the weight and began dragging himself towards the village.

"Ah! Lena!" Wayan exclaimed as the young girl approached, "The Vector told me he'd be sending you to pick up his package, here you go, Oh! I also have a parcel for him from Nigxia, it's from Hae-Long Zae-Lo, there's apparently something for 'Little Pheonix' as well." He said, giving her a cloth bag filled with equipment and charts and a paper parcel wrapped in string.

"Thanks." Lena replied, taking the items and heading for the lighthouse. On her way there she passed her brother struggling with his load.

"Little help here squirt?" He gasped. She rolled her eyes and then frowned at the box. It glowed blue ever so slightly and suddenly became several pounds lighter.

"Phew! Thanks!" Mahad gasped

"Come on, let's hurry up and get this stuff over to the square so that I can give the Vector his packages." She said. Her brother rolled his eyes this time and they walked around to the Square, ignoring Pratucci's snide remarks about 'strays' as they passed by. They ignored him and started the trek up the hill to the lighthouse.

The place was a mess. It seemed that the Vecter had been raiding his stores, or cleaning out his basement or something: one of the two. Their mother was there with bandanna keeping her dark hair out of her face and a broom in her hands, which made them think it was probably a combination of the two; something which had started as the old man looking for something and continued with Mila as a thorough clean out.

"Wow." Lena said as they looked around at the piles of crates.

"Ah! Lena, Mahad!" The Vector greeted enthusiastically. "Is that my package?"

"I think so." Lena replied. Just then something caught Mahad's eye.

"Hey, what's that?" he asked, pointing to where his mother had put something aside. Mila glanced over her shoulder and saw what he was looking at. She smiled and walked over to where she had hung it on the banister. The seijinn picked it up and shook out a long trench coat fondly.

"This," she said as she walked back over to her children "Was your father's. It was what he liked to wear if when he was going out or wasn't wearing his pilot's jacket. He had his initials stitched in on the back, see?"

"M.F." Mahad read as he looked at the spot she showed him on the inside of the collar. He smiled, reveling as he often did in his father's heroic identity "Marcus Farrell."

"Yes." Mila smiled as she put a hand on her son's shoulder, eyes shining with a fierce pride. She looked down at the garment again and held it up. "You know, I think it might fit you quite well, now. I think he'd want you to have it, anyway."

With that she held it out and her son shrugged it on. The Vector's eyebrows rose. In the coat Mahad looked more like his father than ever: the spitting image of Marcus Farrell. Mahad grinned and twisted around to look at it, remarking how cool it was. Lena teased him about being a girl over clothes, jibes he dismissed as jealousy which in turn made her giggle and the adults shake their heads in fond exasperation. Just at that moment, however, Mahad's communicator started buzzing.

"Aw man! What does Cortez want now?" the boy moaned as he took it out, apologizing to his mother as he did so.

"Mahad?" Cortez's voice asked from the other end

"Yeah?" the pilot grunted, putting down the crate of bricks

"We need you and Lena back at the Saint Nazaire as soon as possible."

"We'll be right there." Lena replied for them both. She skipped over and gave her mother a quick hug "See you later, mom."

* * *

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	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**: Do we really need to go through the concept of _**FAN**_fiction?

****A/N: Alright! Three reviews! Awesome! Please, keep it up! Here's the next bit :)****

**Chapter 2**

"What is it Cortez? What's so urgent?" Dahlia asked as she jogged onto the Bridge, the Farrell siblings close behind her.

"We just received information that a small block is having a hard time with the Sphere. They're under blockade and being denied water supplies. We're going to go on a rescue mission. But in the meantime, we need to hit a water carrier to get the extra supplies. We've found one that looks like it could be an excellent choice. Lightly guarded, but full to the brim."

Knowing that they should take it when they could get it, the crew nodded and hurried to their posts. Helping people was important, but they needed to be practical. If they could get extra to give to them it would be better then depleting their own supplies, which they would have to do if they couldn't get this shipment instead. The Sphere may have been dealt a serious blow with the destruction of Karzem, but it was still very powerful and controlled most of the water there was in Skyland through the outright dictatorship of some blocks and through crafty business deals with others. Besides, Puerto Angel had only gotten out of a lengthy drought recently and no one ever wanted to go back to that. Just as Dahlia was about to run off to her post Cortez grabbed her arm.

"Dahlia, it's the Oxford Block." He said. Lena and Mahad blinked. Neither of them noticed that the blonde stiffened slightly.

"That's the block where mom was born!" Lena exclaimed. Cortez glanced over at her only briefly before returning his attention to his second right-hand crewman. Dahlia set her jaw stubbornly and shook her head.

"I'll be at my post." She said firmly as she jogged off. Cortez exchanged a glance with Wayan as he passed by to follow her to their position at the St. Nazair's helm. Mahad thought this a little strange but didn't comment on it. In fact, his attention was diverted completely when the dark-skinned pirate shot him a wink and commented

"Hey Mahad, nice coat!" he said cheerfully.

"Thanks!" Mahad exclaimed in excitement before being reminded of the gravity of the current situation by Cortez gruffly clearing his throat as the Captain returned his attention to the two in front of him.

They were the only two people who didn't immediately run to a post. Mahad and Lena were a little lost in situations like this without their ship. While the Hyperion Mark II had been planned out and started, it was still far from completion so they were trying to find a new slot to squeeze into for the meantime. Cortez was still trying to figure out where to put them while trying to appease and/or tip-toe around their zealously protective mother.

Actually, that in particular was starting to frustrate him. When Mila had first been freed she had spent a lot of time outside either resting or spending time with her children. However, after a few weeks, the first mission post-Karzem had come up—a rescue involving the ex-gladiator Kale; his Mosquito had been shot down during a routine trip to a few of the free blocks, by Shinsiki of all people, who had resurfaced with a desire for revenge and more experimentation. When Lena and Mahad had headed for the ship, Mila had thrown a fit. Cortez didn't know what he or any of them had been expecting. This was a woman who had been willing to renounce her powers, work long hours at labor-intensive job and hand over her water every month to an Organization that she had fought so hard against—all so that her children could live safe, care-free lives devoid of danger. Then she had allowed herself to be imprisoned in order to _keep_ them safe—relatively speaking at least. The freak-out had been building up too after she'd heard a few of the details about some of their escapades, namely ones such as the time that her son and Dahlia had nearly blown up the Hyperion to destroy an iceberg for example. Nevertheless, it had been a little bit…well, loud and forceful. Not that much like the Mila he had known and, according to Mahad and Lena, not much like the mother they knew either. It was strange.

Mahad and Lena were getting a little bit irritated as well. They loved their mother dearly and indeed had spent every waking moment with her the first few weeks after her rescue, but since they had joined the rebels, the pair of them had become accustomed to a certain level of independence and freedom, not to mention excitement. They were now _used_ to and even on occasion _enjoyed_ a good dose of danger in their lives.

At first Cortez had tried consulting her on where to put them, starting with Mahad at the Saint Nazaire's guns, but she hadn't exactly gone for that. Then it was Lena at Navigation aided by her powers. In retrospect, maybe that **_had_** been a bit of a long shot. However, when she'd seemed like she would protest her son grabbing a Mosquito, it had been the teenager who'd argued and pointed out that he was still the best pilot they had, even if the Hyperion had been destroyed, a fact she was forced to concede. She was starting to get a little better. A _little_.

The Rebel captain frowned as he regarded the siblings with these thoughts in mind.

"Mahad, report to Wayan and take a Mosquito." He said, "Lena…" she was more difficult to place, "Go sit with Cheung." He said after a moment's hesitation. The young girl glowered at him but for once she didn't argue and went to go sit with her friend. His eyes narrowed. He could understand her frustration, but she had also been getting a little full of herself lately. Perhaps this would be a good thing for her to take more of a back seat for a little while. At least, that was what he hoped.

**The Future **

The Prisoner's accommodations had changed drastically by the time Oslo went to visit her again. This time instead of a dank, dark cell she was in a private hospital room which was well illuminated and airy. She was still restrained of course, but this time she was buckled in place with straps across her chest and stomach and over her arms with her wrists bandaged lightly, clearly to give the blistered skin a break. Her attire had also changed from a filthy, blood-stained prison uniform to a set of clean hospital pajamas. Next to her stood an IV stand and a steadily beeping machine which monitored her heartrate.

He noticed all this through the glass panel from which her room could be seen from the observation lounge. She was sleeping, again. Then again, she clearly was exhausted…with good reason he supposed. At that point a Doctor walked into the room carrying a chart, closing the door behind him quietly. He was maybe around 40 or so, roughly the same age as the Prisoner and was of a fair height, a couple of inches above average. He had skin with a golden tinge to it and kind black eyes that were almond-shaped. His jet black hair was combed rather then slicked back with a touch of dusty grey in it already. He was clearly from an oriental block. The man bowed respectfully, pushing his rectangular rimmed glasses further up his nose.

"High Commander Oslo," he greeted in a slow, measured tone, clearly more then a little nervous. The Dictator nodded curtly and turned his attention back to the Prisoner.

"What is her condition?" he inquired. The Doctor cleared his throat a little nervously and tugged at the collar of his shirt with agitation before replying

"She is improving, sir." He replied shakily, "But she seems to have been through a great deal. We've given her medication and kept her sedated. She had several torn ligaments and severe bruising. It looks like that insurgent really knocked her around."

Oslo's expression didn't change at hearing the lie, though it was a struggle not to show the smug glee he felt at having succeeded so well in spreading the propaganda.

"Yes, well one can hardly expect any sympathy from animals like those filthy rebels, can one?" he asked, his tone making it clear the answer he expected.

"Of course, sir." The Physician said obediently before adding "She has been a little feverish though sir. She keeps mentioning the same names. Lena, Mahad and—"

"What has she said about the girl?" Oslo demanded suddenly, rounding on the physician in an almost vicious manner and interrupting him.

"N-not much! She just tells Farrell how proud he should be of their 'little girl' and then she sort of whimpered about the daughter's safety."

"I see." Oslo was clearly disappointed. He watched the prisoner's face tighten as she stirred and began to weakly tug at the restraints. He snorted, but couldn't help but be mildly impressed. Then again, her will power had always been formidable to say the least, he'd been very impressed by it the first time he'd encountered the woman…

Well, he was done for the moment. With that, he turned on his heel and stalked out.

The captive, in the meantime, was struggling to regain consciousness. Her drugged sleep had been deep and— at first— peaceful. It had been a welcome change to her cell, where she'd be woken up as soon as she nodded off or left alone in the dark cell for hours on end with the noises from outside and her own fear keeping her awake until she was too exhausted to remain alert. She'd been beaten up, interrogated for hours on end and had seijins try to force their way into her mind on a regular basis. They'd tried just about everything to make her crack. Then again, to be fair, they hadn't done _everything. _For example, she hadn't been subjected to anything that could have left her with an unwanted pregnancy or an STI. It also seemed that Oslo had left specific instructions that she wasn't to have any permanent scarring, no doubt so that she could be used against her daughter later as a bargaining tool or blackmail.

Hence, the rest had been a wonderful relief…at first.

Except that she still had her child to worry about. Her memories of the past few days were dim and hazy with sleep and drugs and at times were indistinguishable from the strange dreams that had plagued her. Each time she'd started to wake dark shapes and voices she couldn't quite understand in her haze had been quick to arrive. Occasionally something cold was put to her forehead. At other times she was even briefly released from the restraints in order to be shuttled over to the bathroom and back whilst she was still too groggy to register much of anything, much less have the strength to fight. After such a brief excursion (which would no doubt be embarrassing if she weren't so our of it) she'd feel tired again. She was dimly aware of an ache in the back of her hand and the sound of a steady, rather annoying beeping in the background. Her face tightened in a grimace as she stirred. She felt hot and stiff. In the back of her mind she registered the hissing of the automatic door opening and the footsteps of someone approaching.

The prisoner tugged at the restraints that kept her trapped in her hospital bed feverishly until she distinctly heard someone's voice hiss her name in her ear

"…can you understand me?" Was the urgent question "If you can, just nod once." She did as requested.

"Good." Was the murmur "Listen, I'm going to try and get you out of here."

"What is…what's going on?" she breathed "Where am I?...Why can't…I ever…wake up?" she opened her eyes and squinted, but as usual everything was just a bright, fuzzy blur.

"You're in a hospital, recovering. You were pretty badly hurt when they brought you here. They've been keeping you drugged." The voice was male, definitely.

"Why?"

"To help you heal faster, but mainly their hoping you'll tell them where your daughter is."

"Never." She growled through clenched teeth

"I know. Look, I'm going to have to sedate you again, that's why they sent me in here, I can't keep 'calibrating' the heart rate machine for much longer." The young man replied

"Who are you?" she asked with a frown "Why are you helping me?"

"A long time ago, you helped save my mother from an insane, power-hungry psychopath. I'm just returning the favor in helping you save your daughter from one."

"_Spencer_?" she muttered incredulously

"I have to put you under again now. Hang in there, though." He told her as he drew some medication into a syringe and then injected it into her IV. Within moments the woman's restless tossing quieted down. As the warm darkness enveloped her she could think of only one thing; not a location or a clue that might give her away, but the face of the one she would die or kill to protect.

"Lena…" she breathed as her world went black.

**_888888_**

Meanwhile on a block several sectors away, the sounds of blasting and fighting followed a young woman as she raced through the back alleyways of the City Block, desperate to stay one step ahead of her pursuers. It was certainly an ominous night with dark clouds partially obscuring the full moon. She skidded to a halt and gasped when she found herself staring at a brick wall between a tavern and what was probably an old house. It had a small ledge sticking out from where the window was, probably the remains of a window garden. If the teenager hadn't been running for her life, she might have found it refreshing to see that at least one row of houses hadn't been torn down to create a motel, bar, or trashy theatre…yet. However, the gravity and desperation of the situation didn't allow time for more then brief recognition of the pleasant oddity.

The young woman looked in wide-eyed horror at the brick wall, slapping her gloved hands against it.

"What?" she hissed, horrified. A dead end? _How_ could there be a dead end? Damn, she should have been paying more attention! She looked around wildly for a spot to hide, the sounds of people approaching getting louder and closer. At that moment the clouds moved just enough for the silver light of the moon to shine down, illuminating the alleyway a little bit. If anyone had been with her, they would have seen the shadow the girl cast on the wall whip around, a long trench coat flaring out momentarily and a long braid slicing through the air as the words of a group of people became distinguishable.

"I think she went this way!" One voice cried, deep and masculine.

"You'd better be right Poe! This is the third time we've started a fight on a block because of your 'suspicions'. I don't want another reprimand!" a second voice snapped. This one sounded like a woman's—a very annoyed woman at that.

"Chill. No one cares about a stupid place like this anyway. It's not like we started a fight on an important block this time, like Vandergaard or something." The pair of Guardians along with three large people armed with blasters and wearing strange masks and a small squad of Brigs rounded the corner into alley that their quarry had found herself cornered in only to find it deserted.

"I was sure she went this way!" The first Guardian exclaimed in indignant disbelief.

"Great. Now what are we going to tell the High Commander? That we lost her _again_, or that we didn't even _find_ her this time?"

"We **did** find her! I'm sure that was her in the bar— its not as though we haven't all been drilled on what she looks like!" Poe retorted angrily

"Our photographs are probably out of date by now. It's not like either of us has actually seen her up close in the last couple of years! Besides, it's _night_! You know that we can't sense anything without our powers! We should have waited until dawn and _then_ tried to confront her!" the female guardian challenged

"Hey, I'm the experienced one here, _you're_ just the apprentice!" Her 'superior' raged

"Good grief Poe, have you ever wondered why you're still only at 8th rank? Of all the people I could have been assigned to…" muttered the younger one. Their soldiers hadn't moved since their leaders had halted. They were all around strange; their eyes staring blankly off into space, their postures rigid and their tightly-fitted masks shining in the flashes of moonlight that peeked through the clouds. In these brief flickers circuit-board type wiring could be made out on these odd pieces of headgear.

From her perch up on the window of the old house, the one they were looking for held perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe. She was too large to stand in the space of the window and instead clung to the ledge, her muscles straining to keep her body as horizontal and pressed to the wall as possible with only the small space of wood to grip. She watched the scene below with wide eyes as a crumbled piece of crumbling brick teetered on the edge of the wooden ledge.

In what seemed like slow motion it finally tipped and fell…right onto the head of one of the masked men. The soldier it hit looked up slowly, his wide blank eyes still staring as though they saw nothing as they fell upon her. She felt her heart plummet and eyes prick as she recognized the face—she'd known this man before he was captured. He'd been a friend. How much more would the Sphere take from her life? She had lost almost everything to them! Her family, her friends, her _home_! However at that particular moment in time anger and indignation wasn't much of an option as fear and adrenaline controlled her system. Looking down and looking the one-time Gladiator straight in the eye, she shook her head as her eyes and expression pleaded with him desperately.

_Don't…_she silently begged _Please_ _don't tell them Kale…_

She knew it was useless. They were little more than robots now; his programming would require that he make a droning, monotone remark to his masters about their 'quarry being sighted' or something else just as lame and mechanical.

However_, _to her intense relief, amazement and (quite frankly) shock, the Soldier turned his head back towards the front and said nothing. After a few more minutes of bickering the two Guardians stalked off in a huff, their train following them obediently like as many well-programmed Brigs. The masked soldier who had seen her still said nothing. As the group rounded the corner their quarry sighed and sagged against the roof-door in relief. After a moment spent catching her breath, the young woman very carefully slid along the ledge and lowered herself down as far as she could until she was just holding the ledge with her hands before lightly dropping the last 10 feet to the floor and landing in a crouched position. She looked around cautiously before straightening, ducking her head and putting her hands in her pockets, setting off down the streets at a casual but deceptively quick pace. She also slipped on a pair of sunglasses, not caring how other people perceived her wearing shades at night. She had to get out of this place and quickly. When dawn arrived she would almost certainly be detected. Now if only she just could find the ship…

To her horror she wasn't the only one who had taken an interest in the bucket of bolts. Apparently, the black coat of paint hadn't been enough to disguise the Mark II, for when she arrived at the ship lot she found a patrol of brigs inspecting the contraption. Looking over at the horizon she also saw the pale purple glow of dawn approaching. Time was of the essence. There was a speeder propped up against the wall of one of the trashy Casinos that riddled the place.

"Ah, what the heck." She muttered to herself as she quietly slipped on the attached helmet, "What's one more charge of theft next to a bounty on your head? Besides, they really should know better at places like _these_." She swung her leg over it, settled into the seat and revved the engine. As she sped it off the edge of the block she nearly knocked the sign reading _Puerto Angel, _sending it spinning around chaotically on its stand.

The wind whipped loose strands of hair into her face and yanked at her coat and braid, but she ignored the annoying consequences of the necessary speed as she weaved and bobbed through a debris field to loose anyone who might be following her. The faster she got out of Sphere-controlled skies, the better.

After about a quarter of an hour she felt her hand tingle and looked down at the square of skin that could be seen on the back of her hand through her glove. It was starting to glitter an eerie electric blue. Almost as if on cue a shimmer of the same shade of blue that had appeared on her skin flashed across the corner of her eye. She whipped her head around to glare at the bird of blue flame flying beside her.

_What a nice nap. Anything interesting happen tonight? Ooh! _A voice in the back of her head crooned as the bird-shaped thing looked over its shoulder and then back at her _I guess it did! Why didn't you say so? _

The sound of engines made the young seijinn glance behind. Two T32's. _Great_. Just great.

"Go _away_!" She hissed at the bird

_Honestly, I know it's early, but there is such a thing as 'manners', you know._

"I _really_ don't have time for this!" The Rebel grumbled. Leaning to the side she banked the speeder hard to the left until she was facing the pair of ships. Releasing the handles of the vehicle, she raised her hands in front of her as though holding a giant beach-ball and a created a large sphere of energy in the space between them, concentrating hard on her task and meticulous in her control.

"Unregistered adult sejinn—proceed to exterminate." The Metallic voice of a Combat brig echoed through the microphone transmitter

**_What_**_? Come on, let me out! Let ME have a go at them!_

"At least I'm finally an _adult_ to you people!" Lena muttered, ignoring the spectre hovering beside her as she moved her hands so that they were palm-up and split the giant energy ball into two, one in each hand. With a grunt of effort she hurled them both at the ships. Both blasts hit their mark with perfect accuracy and the patrollers started to fall, their sides on fire where the attacks had made direct hits.

_I could have done it too! You _**_never_**_let me have any fun anymore! _The voice whined.

"Yeah, and there's a good reason for that." the teenager muttered.

Without sticking around to see the outcome, the sejinn hauled the speeder around again and sped off, entering another debris field. She finally yanked the poor speeder to a stop when she reached a small block in the middle of the debris at a small block with only enough land on it to house a single building: an old lighthouse. The rock looked like it had a chunk missing out of it with a crumbling set of stairs that began at the edge of the block and led up to an old, somewhat broken-down lighthouse. She parked it precariously on the crumbling step that was literally hanging in mid-air as there wasn't any ground beneath it. She leapt off the bike and sprinted up to the door, yanking it open and slamming it shut.

"Vector!" She yelled, "VECTOR!"

"What is it?" A very old man said from the top of the stairs "Ah,Lena, you're back!" He exclaimed when he hobbled over stiffly to the rail and saw her "Did you get what I asked for?"

"No!" the young woman said as she jogged up the winding metal stairs. A sight at something out the window made her skid to a halt and look out. Her silver-blue eyes narrowed and then widened at what she saw: patrollers slowly, carefully, but steadily navigating the treacherous debris field. The seijin whipped her head around, black braid slicing through the air as she yelled

"But believe me, we have bigger problems!"

**Review please...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer**: Not mine.

**A/N: Okay, sorry for the wait, though you wonderful skyland fans are admittedly luckier than anyone who is following my Wicked fic at the moment...its crunch time at school basically, Mega-Busy! So this one might also be a little bit shorter...oh well. **

**Chapter 3**

**The Future**

The dark-haired young seijin bolted past the Vector and shot up to her attic room, literally and jumping back down only a few seconds later with a suitcase in her hand. She always kept it packed with some rudimentary provisions for both of them; fake ID's, some black-market goods for trade, water bottles; years on the run had neither made her stupid or left her incompetent. There was a reason that the Sphere never caught up with her and the Vector.

"They know we're here." She said, throwing objects at random into the bag with a wild fervor "While I was bartering for your stuff, I overheard someone talking with two guardians. They described _exactly_ how to get here, what to look for and more importantly, _who_ to look for-specifically the elderly genius who designed that pesky 'Blue Sky' program from years and years ago."

"Do they know you're here?"

"They know somebody else is here but they didn't actually say anything about me for a change. But even if they didn't, I stole a speeder and attacked two patrollers! They're on their way here now. They are baying for your blood out there, Vector! We have to get you out of here!"

"We can't leave now! I'm nearly finished my latest invention! It's too big to bring with us!" the old man the lid of the suitcase shut in frustration

"Vecter, they have got Brigs _and_ Zombies!" she snapped, referring to the masked soldiers by their rather appropriate street name.

"I cannot simply abandon my life's work to those ruffians!" The old man insisted stubbornly. His young charge groaned and rolled her eyes impatiently but she really didn't give a damn about the various 'inventions' cluttering up the lighthouse. She worried about the Vector. All she had was the speeder to get him away and now he wanted to bring one of his gadgets with him? Wait a minute…his gadgets!

Lenaturned and raised an eyebrow at the vector in a mannerism that reminded him so much of Mahad it was spooky.

"What about the other one?" his young friend hinted, "The more…travel-friendly invention? You know! The one that could, say, _fix_ all of this?"

The Vector knew exactly where she was going and didn't like the direction.

"Lena, you know that one isn't safe! It's never been tested!"

"Of course it hasn't been tested! And even if it had, it's not like we would know." She retorted

"You know, you are sounding more like Mahad every day." He told her

"Thank-you." She said. The Old man didn't point out that that wasn't necessarily a good thing in that particular instant. Instead he shook his head stubbornly.

"No." he said firmly in response to what she wanted to out a sound partway between a groan and a growl and looked outside before leveling her bright gaze on him again.

"Vector, it's either that or we both spend the rest of our lives as Sphere prisoners!" she exclaimed angrily, the desperation in her tone evident.

"But Lena," The Vector said kindly as he reached up to put his hands on her shoulders "What about your mother? She told us we were not to use that device. Or even think about using it. **_Ever_**."

"Mom's not here right now." Lenahalf-yelled as she shrugged him off "Who knows what they've done with her! For the love of Skyland, we're the last ones left and _now they're coming to get us_! BUT if this works, she might not have to go through any of the experiences from the St Nazaire's defeat onward— none of them will! _Because the St. Nazaire won't fall._ I can make sure of it."

"Lenait wouldn't work! You'd be completely lost in that—"

The Vector was cut off by the sound of a ship approaching. With a sharp intake of breath both whipped around to look out the window.

"Oh no…" the old man said. They'd wasted too much time arguing.

"Vector, come on, we have to leave!"Lenaimplored as she tried to steer him towards the twisting metal staircase.

"On what?" the Vector asked, "If all that's out there is a speeder— did the ship get confiscated again?"

"I'm sorry! I'm a passable pilot, but the ship-savvy gene must have skipped me somehow! That's what happens when you get a double-dose of a…different trait."

"You're not bad with a speeder." The Vector pointed out trying to help

"Only after a lot of work and practice and that doesn't exactly help us right now!" She retorted "Come on we have to hide-"

At that moment the door was kicked in.

"By order of High Commander Oslo, this house is now property of the Sphere and-hey where is everyone?" a man shouted pompously from the the Vector both stepped back so that they weren't in immediate view of the party entering but both knew that the gig was up; the Sphere had them surrounded. The teenager swallowed when she saw the masked soldiers enter after their masters. Her heart pounding at the thought of a cage she looked around wildly, scrambling to think of something.

"Do they know what you look like?" she hissed at the Vector

"I don't know. Why?" he asked.

"Because I'm going to test my poker-face. Hide and start the machine up. I'll try and stall." She murmured through the corner of her mouth before walking over to the railing. Taking a deep breath she contorted her features into the most outraged expression she could manage.

"_Excuse_ _me_!" she cried indignantly, skipping down the rickety stairs "What are you doing here? This is private property! You have no right to-"

"We are here to arrest _him_." The Guardian replied, pointing a glowing finger at the Vector who had hobbled over closer to the looked in the direction of the guardian's finger and frowned, closing her eyes.

"_The_ _Vector_." Poe finished triumphantly. The teenager was stubborn though, and not about to give in quite yet.

"The _what_?" she asked with apparent confusion. The Guardian growled in frustration and made a jerking moment with his hand. In response to the command one of the zombie-soldiers stepped toward the teenager, swung his fist back robotically and then flung it forward, connecting with the girl's face in a blow that sent her sprawling. The Vector cried out at this, and only managed to stop himself from yelling her name, which needless to say was not exactly a good idea.

"The **Vector**." Poe snarled

Lenalanded on her front at the foot of the stairs with a thud and a grunt. Immediately she felt the rage boil up inside of her as It tried to force its way out. Her fingers gripped the bottom stair as she fought It and (this time) won. She was glad her face was turned away from them so no one would see the electric, seijin blue flash across her eyes briefly before she got it under control.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know who you mean."Lenaspat over her shoulder as she started to get up.

"Oh really?" a woman's voice inquired as she walked in. "On your feet, _peasant_." She hissed at the dark-haired girl in contempt, grabbing her by the collar of her coat and yanking her to her feet. The guardians advanced up the stairs, the woman dragging the teenager along with winced slightly and her hand went to the side of her face around the side of her eye and cheekbone. The skin was tender, telling her that it was probably already turning purple, and her fingertips came away with a tint of red. There must have been some metal or glass fragment or something that had cut into her.

"By Order of High Commander Oslo, this property has been confiscated and that man, AKA _the Vector_ is under arrest, along with anyone caught aiding and abetting him, AKA _you_." Poe said as his partner threw her captive to the floor in front of the Vector.

"What exactly could a helpless old man have done to the Sphere?" she asked, getting to her feet with the old man's (minor) assistance.

"Don't play dumb with us. He is the one who supplies the rebels with their inventions." The woman snapped

"What rebels? I thought there weren't any more free blocks. You've got the wrong man!" The girl insisted rebelliously.

"If he has nothing to hide, then why is he living here, in the middle of a debris field?" the Guardian countered, "Come to think of it, why are _you_ here and _who_ are you?"

"She is my granddaughter." The Old man said, catching on to the game his young friend was playing,

"Wait a minute," the female Guardian said with a sudden gasp, "Poe, look at her face. Look!" Both Poe and the Vector turned around. The sun was peaking in through the window of the lighthouse and its glow fell on one side of the teenager's face. She looked around at them before catching her mentor's eye and gingerly touched her cheekbone. She didn't need a mirror to know what it looked like.

"I've never seen a non-sejinn heal so fast." The female guardian said in a low tone.

"I've never seen a sejinn heal so fast, or like _that_." The male guardian added, pointing at the way the skin around it was sparkling like some kind of blue diamond as it visibly repaired itself.

"Well, well. It looks like we've finally caught up to you, _Lena_."

"L-Lena?" the dark-haired girl stammered, though it was clear she was grasping at straws now, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"L-Lena? Her name isn'tLena! It's-it's Anne!" The Vector threw in, unconvincingly "And…and we aren't hiding! Our lighthouse broke apart from our block many years ago." Actually, that bit was true. Or at least…partially.

"Really?" The female Guardian sounded skeptical before once again turning her attention toLena"If you've nothing to hide, then why did you run when we saw you? And why are you dressed like that? It's warm; you don't need such a long coat and certainly not gloves."

"I ran, because I thought you were…working for somebody else. We, er, owe money. Yeah, that's right. Besides, on a block like that you can't be too careful. And I have a skin condition." She replied. The information had bits of truth in it. Well, scattered truth at least. Unfortunately their captors weren't buying it.

"You sure do look a lot like that Sejinn girl."

"She gets that all the time." The Vector said a little desperately, "It's the dark hair and light eyes. People forget that there are many with that gene combination."

The male Guardian narrowed his eyes and snapped his fingers. Two of the soldiers that had followed them up stepped forward and grabbed the girl's arms at each elbow and wrist before she'd even registered that they were there. It was a common tactic; she should have seen it coming. As she struggled the male guardian removed a hand-held device with a screen, a small pad and a sharp metal point at the top.

"You should recognize this, Vector." The Guardian-in-training said "It's developed from one of your inventions. Our dear, mutual friend has perfected it for us. You should be proud of him, he's even better than his grandfather ever was! Now we'll see what stories there are to tell here."

With a cruel yet curious smirk Poe approached the restrained, struggling young woman even as a third 'Zombie' came up to her from behind and pulled her head back, exposing the pale and flailed and jerked to try and escape their grasp to no avail. Physically they were far stronger than she was. In the back of her mind another option was screamed at her and becoming all too tempting. She cried out, more in anger then pain, when the needle broke through the skin to prompt the precious drop of blood to trail down her neck and onto the waiting pad. It was absorbed into the grey material almost instantly.

The guardians didn't get to see the results of their test though. In a flash of blinding blue light the three 'Zombies holding the young seijin still were thrown in all directions, one flying out the window and one over the railing. The two guardians each instinctively threw up shields but it didn't help them. The only difference was that they slid back about half a foot before getting air time. The Vector was spared though and was left to cower from the painfully bright flash. When the light dimmed enough for the old man to lower his shielding arm from his eyes he saw the outline of blue flame flickering around his young friend, her eyes pools of electric blue with water-like reflections of white.

With the two free strands of long dark hair still framing her face Lena straightened and cricked her neck audibly from one side and then the other before stepping to the railing and glaring down at the wriggling, groaning bodies littering the floor. With a tilt of her head a transparent shield began to bear down on them, slowly pressing them into the floor as she watched them with the eyes of raptor eyeing a struggling mouse from above…

"Lena! That's enough, Stop!" the Old Man's voice jarred her enough for the sejiin to recognize that if she didn't do what he suggested, she might actually kill the people down there. She gasped and stumbled back until she was against a wall and sank to the floor, breathing heavily as her eyes returned to normal. She said nothing for a few moments.

"I…I could have killed them." She finally breathed, horrified. The blood of the 'Zombies in particular would have shattered her. Those men weren't in control of their actions. It wasn't their fault the Sphere had decided to use them like that instead of kill or imprison them.

"But you didn't." The Vector said comfortingly as he started to hobble towards the panel to their secret room. He glanced over his shoulder to see that the young woman was still sitting against the wall "And you _wouldn't_ have."

"I'm not so sure." She murmured as she got to her feet and followed. Before she reached the door behind the bookcase the device caught her eye. It apparently had been dropped by its carrier and was remarkably undamaged. The seijin bent down and picked it up, raising an eyebrow as she used her thumb to scroll down and read the results.

_PARTIAL MATCH; MATERNAL DONOR IN CUSTODY, NAME:… _Lena slid past that one quickly. She already knew that answer and raged about the fact that her mother was in Sphere custody. However, she was curious what else this thing registered now if Cheung had been tinkering with it. She was impressed at the amount of information it gave. She knew what her blood-test results would be but this provided a brief overview of the seijin's unusually complicated blood work in mere sentences. Apparently all Guardians were now expected to know her right down to the cellular level. How touching. And how beyond creepy. What vaguely amused her in a sardonic sort of way was the final statement;

_SPECULATIVE MATCH TO ROGUE SEIJINN LENA FARREL; APPREHEND ALIVE AT ALL COSTS. HIGHLY DANGEROUS, PROCEED WITH CAUTION. _

"Highly dangerous, huh? Well, at least they get some things right." She muttered to herself before letting the gadget fall to the floor. She didn't pause before crushing it beneath her boot, leaving the screen cracked and the information fizzing in and out of focus on a continual loop.

Inside their little 'Annex' (as the Vector had named it) was a strange device on the floor that the Vector was setting up with the large computer located within the room. It didn't take long for the old man to punch in the codes and calculations to start it up. However, just as he was nearly done, he stopped

"We can…find another way." He said, knowing even as he said so that it was useless. Indeed, the young woman shook her head solemnly.

"We've tried everything else." His young friend replied sadly

"You know that I can't go with you. You'll be on your own." He humorlessly.

"I wish I was alone," The teenager replied dryly. "Besides, _nothing_ we do is safe,"

"But they won't know who you are!"

"That's kind of the point, don't you think? I mean, wouldn't telling them break some kind of rule or something? Besides, it's not like they'd believe me even if I did tell them something. Look, those guys will wake up and they'll call for back up. We can hide in here but clearly not for much longer. Do you have any better ideas?"

The old man couldn't reply.

"Then there we have it,"Lenasaid, as if that ended the argument and settled the matter. The Vector shook his head. This girl was the last family he had left. Could he really let her go through with a plan like this, with such consequences, even if it succeeded? Unfortunately, he also knew how determined his teenaged friend was. The only reason he was helping her with it was that he knew she would probably try it on her own with disastrous consequences. With that knowledge of the determined young seijinn (and of what her mother would probably do to him if she ever found out before everything was irrevecoably changed) he entered in the last code. The device trembled a little and then a black swirl erupted from it to form a large, dark, circular vortex that swirled like a whirlpool. The Seijinn looked at it with wide eyes as the wind it generated suddenly blasted at her in a sudden ominous burst, making the escaped strands of hair from her braid whip around her face. Lena flinched but wasn't deterred.

"You don't have to do thisLena," The Vector reminded her. She closed her eyes a moment and took a deep calming breath. When she looked up however, her hands clenched into fists and her gaze was filled with determination as she stared at the portal.

"Yes, I do," She replied, approaching the threshold of the black swirl.

"You do know that if you go through with this there will be consequences. Severe consequences. Things could get better but they could also get worse."

"Worse than this? Yeah, right,"

"People will not meet; events won't happen…_children won't be born_," He emphasized. There was a long pause.

"Like I said,"Lenafinally stated, setting her jaw stubbornly, "Couldn't really be worse than this, could it?"

With that she charged through the portal without giving the old man a chance to reply to her statement. There was a bright flash and then, just like that;

She was gone.

**Please leave a review for an overly-stressed author...**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4 **_

_**Disclaimer: Not mine.**_

_**A.N: Okay, so I have been absent from this story for WAY too long! Very sorry about that! To make it up to you I have a nice long chapter here for you guys. :)  
>There's a bit of an imaginative stretch in here that was alluded to earlier in the story<strong>__** which was inspired from the episode "Great Wall", specifically Ha-Long Zalo calling Lena 'Little Phoenix'. Read and you'll see.**_

_**The Future**_

The Prisoner was stubborn. That much anyone could figure out. After a while it became difficult to keep her under sedation; she would fight them and struggle whenever they came around whenever she roused and it required increasing amounts of the tranquilizer to quiet her. In fact, the dosage was starting to concern the physician attending to her. This concern was sincere enough that he had stopped keeping her completely under 24-7 and allowed the woman to remain awake for small periods of time. At the moment it was one of those hours.

The Captive was surprisingly quiet at times, her physician noted as he watched her through the two-way glass panel. She was currently leaning back against the pillows on her bed, her jaw in what seemed to be a permanent stubborn setting as she stared at the ceiling—clearly deep in thought. Rhythmically she tugged at the restraints that had returned to her wrists. High Commander Oslo had been back as well to speak with her. He clearly didn't get the information he wanted —although judging by his visit of the previous day he had gotten it from somewhere else. He had definitely been gloating and afterward had informed the Doctors that it was no longer necessary to keep the prisoner completely sedated at all times if it was detrimental to her recovery and overall health.

Just at that moment a droning sound echoed through the little office he was in and the lights suddenly went out, leaving the physician in total darkness.

8888888

"Miss? Can you hear me?" a voice whispered in the captive's ear as she felt fingers fiddling with the straps on her wrists

"Of course I can hear you! I'm fully conscious this time Spencer," She hissed in reply. Feeling the leather buckle loosen, she jerked her wrist sharply. The corner of her mouth twitched slightly in satisfaction to hear a snapping sound accompany the motion. With one hand free she pulled at the buckle on her other side whilst her friend helped get the restraints on her feet off. Once her limbs were free she yanked the IV tube out of her arms and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She was surprised at how good her night-vision had become after spending all that time in the dark. Either that or her other senses were just good at compensating. She received an unwelcome shock when her legs gave out the moment she put her weight on them.

"Whoa, careful!" her 'rescuer' exclaimed as he caught her before she sagged to the floor, his hands on her arms.

"I have _never_ been this weak before!" she muttered in disgust as Spencer pulled her up to her feet. Just to be sure he put his arm around her waist and her arm over his shoulder to support her, half carrying her as they headed for the door.

"How are you _seeing_?" she asked him after they turned into what she supposed was a hallway.

"Oh, right! Here." The young man replied as he pushed a pair of glasses onto her face. Suddenly the hallway appeared to be illuminated in a strangely eerie pinkish light

"Are these…are these Cheung's?" she asked him

"Yup." He replied "We managed to swipe a few see-in-the-dark lenses."

"We? But the resistance…it's almost all gone! Trust me I should know, I was one of the ones in charge for years…"

"Not everyone is out for the count. There have been one or two breakouts since your capture. There isn't enough time to explain, we must hurry." He told her as they hobbled along. Slowly the feeling began to return to the prisoner's legs and she began to make more steps of her own, allowing them to go faster. Suddenly the lights began to flicker until with a static-like sound they flared back on, causing the two to slow momentarily in apprehension. The alarm that blared hurried them on however and they ducked into a doorway to avoid the masked soldiers that stormed by. They both let out a controlled sigh of relief once they were gone and Spencer jerked his head in the direction of a panel in a little alcove-like square-shaped depression across the hall.

By this time adrenaline had kicked in and the captive was able to sprint across the short distance unaided, though she did stumble on the last step and had to grab at the metal wall in the square groove for momentary support. She clenched her teeth with frustration at her sudden physical weakness and determinedly pushed herself off it to stand on her own two feet. Spencer had crossed the hall as well by then and was punching in a code at the panel. A hatch opened up right above the top of the metal ladder, allowing a ray of orange light to stream in. The prisoner placed her hands on the rail again before looking back to her newfound friend in question. He nodded hastily in confirmation and motioned for her to start climbing before quickly giving her a boost. She looked back down in confusion

"You aren't coming with me?" she asked him. He shook his head

"But you know what they'll do to you when they find out you helped me!" she exclaimed

"There's only room for two in the get-away vehicle" he told her

"One, two." She retorted pointing to herself and then to Spencer as she spoke "Where is my math going wrong?"

"Someone else is waiting for you at the top. Besides, my job isn't finished here." The intern said gravely "I _can't_ leave now."

The woman sighed. She knew that look on his face. It was one that she got sometimes—okay a lot of the time. This was a person with a mission; one that she wouldn't be able to talk him out of. She nodded and smiled sadly

"Fine. But take care of yourself. You've really grown up from that little boy we met all those years ago, Spencer. Good luck."

Spencer nodded. Just as she was about to haul herself up the ladder he suddenly seemed to remember something.

"Wait!" He hissed, making her turn to see him fumbling in his pockets. He retrieved something and held out his fist to her, slowly opening it to reveal a ring. The prisoner recognized it immediately.

"I believe this is yours." He said. The woman looked at him with a wealth of emotion in her eyes before throwing her arms around him and whispering her thanks in his ear. She wiped her nose on her sleeve (the only thing available) and took the jewelry, slipping it onto the ring finger of her left hand with a small, thin smile.

"Now go!" Spencer insisted.

The former-Sphere captive nodded and dragged herself over the top of the hatch, a pair of hands helping pull her onto the roof. Getting to her hands and knees she looked up to see who else had helped her and recoiled, eyes wide.

In front of her was a woman wearing a silver-and-black mask with a pattern like a circuit board along the sides. She also wore the grey, black and red uniform of the other drones for this particular base.

"It's okay! It's okay!" The second woman exclaimed in a hushed tone, putting her hands up palm-out in a gesture to convey a lack of hostility before peeling the thing off, something one of the masked soldiers would never have been able to do. She tossed it to the side before reinforcing, "It's fake! It was the only way to get past the guards."

Beneath the mask was a familiar face that had been weathered and hardened over the years through stress and hardship. Her hair, like the Captive's, had gotten longer and shaggier since they'd last met. The mop of bright red was now grimy with dirt and streaked prematurely with silver, although the dark blue eyes were still, well at least _similar_.

"Alice?" she breathed with a wince-like frown, her heart still thudding in her ears. The other woman nodded solemnly. "I thought you were dead! I'm certainly glad I was wrong!"

"Yeah, me too." The seijin replied gruffly, humorously "Come on, we don't have much time. We have to get you out of here before they think to close off the Docking Bays."

With that Alice grabbed the other woman's elbow to help her up. They ran for the air-lock, the red-headed seijin half dragging the escapee (though that was a step up from being half-carried) until they reached a gap between buildings and the red-haired woman put an arm in front of her companion to stop her. The former prisoner looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow

"I can make it. I might be out of shape right now, but in our day and up until a little while ago..."

"I'm not taking that chance." Alice replied as she looked around at the setting sun before raising a hand that glowed faintly. With a lurch her companion was about a foot off the ground and then zipped across the distance to land rather lightly. The former guardian followed quickly and they continued on their rush until they reached a small ship shaped like a pod with tinted windows. Quickly, Alice shoved her hand into the imprint for it beneath the hatch which made it open.

"Get in." she barked.

"Don't need to tell **me** twice, let's get out of here!" The other woman muttered as she swung into the passenger's seat.

"I could drive it if you want." She said as an afterthought when Alice seemed to be having trouble with starting the engine "I did fly a much bigger ship for years."

"It's okay, I got it." The former Guardian replied "Let's go."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Year 2252<strong>_

"…So what do _you_ think?" Cheung asked, jerking Lena out of her thoughts.

"Sorry, what?" she asked vaguely.

"What do you think about those rumors that the Sphere has some "new invention" to track down sejinns?"

"Oh. I don't know." She replied with a shrug, "The Sphere's no biggie. I already beat them."

Cheung stopped and looked at her with wide eyes before looking around to see if anyone else had heard the comment. If they had, they were rather pointedly ignoring it.

"But Lena, you defeated Oslo, not the Sphere. They're still a really big threat!"

"Okay, okay. _Sorry_." The young girl muttered grumpily with a roll of her eyes.

"We're nearing the coordinates. Everyone, get ready." Cortez growled, pulling the wheel around, "Dahlia, release the Mosquitoes! Wyan, Mahad, you know the plan."

"Yes sir." They both replied via comm. Link.

"Alright, everybody, Cheung, get the new force-shield system up! Dahlia, man the cannons, Lena, you go help her. If it's not too menial a task for a sejinn as powerful as yourself, that is." His last remark dripped with reproachful sarcasm. To Lena's credit she turned beet red and jogged a little faster. So he _had_ heard her arrogant comment. Dahlia apparently had as well as she gave Lena a raised eyebrow on their way out that challenged her to say something else. She settled herself at one of the seats behind a large energy cannon.

"Here Lena, you take that one." She said, jerking her head in the direction of the smaller cannon beside her.

"But I don't know how to use it!" Lena exclaimed

"I showed you before, remember? It's easy. You aim it and then you press the red buttons on the handle. Just remember that it'll move back a little after it's been fired." The blonde said, looking through the circular piece of glass with a thin red cross on it that was used for aiming. Lena frowned but sat where she was asked to. The ship was passing through a thick cloud, making the deck very damp and chilly for a few moments. However, to the pirates, it was after they cleared it that they felt their blood run cold.

"Whoa! Where did that blockade come from? I thought it was a _lightly_ guarded water carrier!" Mahad cried over the comm system.

"It seems we've been had." Cortez growled, "Either that, or they intercepted some of our transmissions. Either way, we'll have to get out of here."

"Too late!" Cheung exclaimed, "Our radar show that they're surrounding us! Three patrollers have already formed a line behind us and more are joining them! What are we going to do?" The Captain thought a moment and then replied,

"We'd have a fire-fight getting out anyway at this point. Might as well show them we mean business! Attack the water carrier!"

"AYE SIR!" Was the reply in complete unison from the crew. The battle that ensued was fierce.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, aboard a ship <em>just<em> outside their radar telemetry, a guardian sat in his own private quarters, watching the fight on his own personal screen. There was no sign of sejinn powers being used. That was odd. Either Lena wasn't with them, or they were too stupid to put her abilities to use. _Well_, Oslo thought as he leaned back in his chair, _either way I get closer to my goal. If they win, I learn more about these rebel's battle tactics. If they lose I get Lena. _

He wondered if she had told them that he was still alive. Certainly the Sphere had simply assumed him to be dead following the disaster at Karzemm. That had made it very easy for him to set the ball rolling for a coup d'état later on. He already had the loyalty of the guardians, and all one needed to do with the brigs was re-program them. As it currently stood a takeover was going to be fairly easy. The Brigs were pretty much the largest fighting force, and they were very easily disabled. That being said, he wasn't about to repeat his mistakes; his enemies were not to be underestimated. He had gained the advantage of surprise but had lost several other key assets.

Never mind. He could wait. He had time and, more importantly, he had not one but _several_ plans. He ran through a few of them in his mind as he watched the fight between the rebels and the Sphere.

Seijinn energy was one such thought, or more specifically how to garner more of it. His last draining of Darius' powers had left him feeling rejuvenated: Quite literally as a matter of fact. Unfortunately his brother was no longer available for the light chamber, and he wouldn't use Lena even if he did catch her. He was not that foolish and besides, she was his Lady of Light. That didn't mean lesser, less valuable seijinns were out of the question, though. The academy was full of second class wonders. Then there was the matter of an army. He needed one, that was for sure. And he would eventually need one that wasn't robotic, at least until he got a hold of Tibbald's grandson (which was now on his list of priorities. Not high up, precisely, it could wait a while as a matter of fact, but he wanted that pint-sized genius eventually). At the same time though, there was something to be said for an army that didn't think for itself. Once he reached the very top he would address that; it would be too difficult to do so beforehand.

The "show" became very boring, very quickly. It was more than a little frustrating to know that either the one he was most interested in wasn't there or that she was being idle. Eventually those doubts were assuaged but even then the seijinn energy that came into play were mere energy blasts, there was no creativity, no finesse to them. They were almost lazy. The only indication that they were Lena's was the sheer force of the blasts. Pity. It was so disappointing. Everyone knew she had power. He had been curious to see a repeat of her stunt off the Babylonia block when she had created a much larger than life image of her mother out of seijin energy to attack patrol ships. Alas.

Oslo was just starting to consider turning off the monitor and have the computer alert him if anything potentially hazardous to him were to occur when something caught his eye, something big. His eyes widened and then narrowed and he sat forward in his chair, gripping the arms of it as he concentrated on the incredible spectacle before him.

He wasn't the only one who was captivated by it, far from it. The rebels too, slowed their fighting until they were staring in a mixture of awe, utter bewilderment and confusion at the jaw dropping, impossible sight.

It began with an unnoticed object falling through the sky, apparently dropping out of the cloud-cover overhead. No one took any heed of it until seemingly out of nowhere an immense beacon of light formed and expanded around it, plummeting down the same trajectory for a moment before swooping up out of its dive spectacularly and unfurling a pair of great wings to their full and impressive span, emitting a resounding shriek reminiscent of a bird-of-prey's. There was a near-blinding flash when the creature unfurled its impressive wings which made the human members of the fight cry out and shield their eyes with their arms or hands momentarily and even catching the Brigs off guard.

When this flash faded the machines began running scans automatically whilst the more organic people involved in the fight gawked; it was unlike anything they had ever seen before. The enormous bird hovering between the St. Nazair and the Sphere ships appeared to be made entirely of blue flame. The only thing that came to mind in terms of its resemblance to something, anything, previously described was…well, a firebird. Or a phoenix. With a power and grace that no one could contest, the creature angled its wings and flew across the sky with incredible speed. It headed straight towards the nearest block, an abandoned square with a large dome-like thing that had once been used as a base-ball stadium, leaving a visible ripple of some kind in its wake.

"Everyone, brace yourselves!" Cortez yelled just before the shock-wave reached them. It made the ship lurch slightly, but nothing more. Everyone, Sphere and Pirates alike, were momentarily too stunned to continue.

"What was _that_?" Lena asked Dahlia. The blonde shrugged without taking her wide-eyed stare off the baseball stadium block, jaw still hanging open like everyone else's.

The moment ended. Cortez recovered first.

"Mahad, Wayan, Dahlia, go check it out. Everyone else, we have to finish this off!"

"Yes sir." They replied, more or less in unison.

8**8**8**8**8**8**8**8**8**8

The girl groaned as she came to. Everything ached and yet at the same time her entire body felt like it had been liquefied. Dimly she was aware that something was on top of her…no—no she had been in this position before to know what the weight across her back was: debris. With an effort, she forced her eyes open and dragged her head up a fraction. She was within some sort of concrete…ditch? No, not a ditch. Too shallow. She didn't know the correct word for it. Across her back were the remains of some kind of wooden sun-shade and some chain link fencing. Wincing, she pushed her self up, the pieces sliding off her back so that she was leaning on her hands, her long braid draped over her shoulder and the loose strands dangling in front of her face, framing it.

Well, everything _hurt_ but she seemed to be in one piece. With a grunt of exertion the young woman hauled herself out from the depression, concluding it to be a player's pit or whatever they had called the spot where pre-skyland people had played baseball in. She'd barely managed to get herself into the open and collapse onto her back trying to catch her breath when the shimmering avian specter hovered across her vision.

"I hate you," She snarled at it venomously

_I saved your life. _It replied with an irritating smugness. Lena scoffed and sat up

"What life?" she demanded as she dusted her coat sleeves off sharply before getting to her feet with a grimace. She slowly turned around to take in her surroundings, squinting slightly in the noon sun over the old baseball diamond.

"Where _are_ we?" Lena asked as she put one hand on her hip and shaded her eyes with the other.

_Can't you think of a better question oh great 'mastermind'? _The specter sneered. Lena gave it a withering look to which it shrugged its shoulder in a preen

_Oh, don't give me that. You really don't know how to take a joke, _It remarked in a sort of aloof innocence as it started to glide around her again eerily. Grinding her teeth in irritation the teenager swatted at the pale blue wisps around her, dissipating them as she stepped through them.

A whirring sound automatically made her stiffen and look around sharply for the source. She saw the approaching shadow of a ship which was enough to send her rushing to search for a hiding place. The place was completely exposed except for the sheltered pits and the remnants of the audiences' seats: a rickety, rather dangerous-looking set of bleachers. She opted for the latter, using just about the last of her seijinn energy to elevate her leap to the top. Her landing was uncertain and she stumbled across one of the bleachers to the end and grabbed the tall lamp post to stop her from falling off the other side. She knelt down between the elevated rows of benches to take advantage of the shadows to conceal her location as best she could.

Lena was glad for the loud wind, because she couldn't quiet her breathing as she struggled to satisfy her exhausted body's demands for oxygen. Her sides ached with cramps and she felt drained. Nevertheless, hard training courtesy of life on the run from the Sphere and every bounty hunter in Skyland had taught her how to compartmentalize trivial things like hunger, thirst, pain, and exhaustion. Anything to avoid a cage. So she watched and waited. A patroller circled but had not spotted her thankfully.

Just as some people were walking into the stadium something caught the corner of the teenager's eye and she turned her head slowly to see what it was.

There was someone standing in one of the craters in the crumbly wall who was hunched like a great red spider and staring at her like she was the fly caught in the trap: A figure in red with pale skin, spiky black hair and a crazed look in her eye. The madwoman was not around in Lena's time, but the teenager recognized her from old pictures and some of her own strange flash-backs.

Shinsiki.

The insane seijinn had seen the Phoenix's descent, crash and disappearance…and therefore Lena's pitiful struggle out from beneath the mess that the investigators were examining now.

She knew.

Something that the seijinn had thought was surely tapped to the max surged within her along with yet another shot of adrenaline. Shinsiki's smug, crazed, predatory look faltered as the dark-haired young woman's eyes suddenly seemed to suddenly ignite with whisp-like seijinn energy as her face contorted into a terrifying mask of fury and power. In the next second she was in the air, her arms outspread and a faint outline of wings trailing around her for a fleeting second as those eyes of blue fire bored into her target.

The two women toppled through the hole onto the other side of the dome, only just managing to stay on the block. The teenager had landed on top and very effectively pinned Shinsiki down, allowing the other seijinn to use her powers to slow their fall. They still landed with a significant thud and bring down part of the crumbling infrasturcture to create further noise though, enough to make one of the three rebels investigating the wreckage pause within the stadium and enquire to his companions if they had "heard that".

Outside, the time traveler stood hunched over the red-clad former guardian with one foot pressing down on Shinsiki's chest painfully. A pair of flaming eyes bored into the other seijin's, Lena's arms out almost like wings. Her movements were predatory, graceful and once again uncannily bird-like. She let out an avian shriek in the face of her "prey" that caught the attention of the rebels inside the domed baseball diamond. However, after making said noise she seemed to deflate. The flames faded to reveal normal human irises and the glow disappeared. Shinsiki seized the opportunity and struck. Soon enough they were rolling on the ground in a tackle, but the madwoman had a decided advantage over the completely drained traveler. Their positions were soon switched with the former guardian's hand at Lena's neck. The teenager clawed at the hand pressing on her larynx with her gloved hands even though the pressure seemed to be incapacitating rather than lethal.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you. Not until I've had a taste of tha—argh!" the crazed seijinn's leer was cut off with a very human scream as a boomerang cut deeply into her shoulder. She had been so distracted by her tasty new morsel of power that she hadn't heard or sensed a non-seijinn exit the stadium.

Mahad had been the one closest to the exit when he, Wayan and Dahlia heard the strange shriek and yelled over his shoulder to the others that he would check it out. He was glad he had. When he had run out of the stadium he had seen the unmistakable form of Shinsiki choking a young woman. He caught the boomerang as it came whizzing back to him. The madwoman who had once abducted his sister rounded on him, her hand releasing the girl's throat as it reflexively went to the injury.

"YOU!" She hissed. Her would-be victim seized the opportunity and brought her leg up, kicking the red-clad woman off her in a martial-arts move that seemed vaguely familiar to Mahad. Panting shakily, the stranger rolled away from her attacker into a crouched position with one leg extended outwards to balance herself. Shinsiki wasn't out for the count, however, and hauled herself back up. Again Mahad threw his boomerang but this time she was ready and deflected it quickly.

"Well, look who it is," The madwoman laughed maniacally

"Uh oh, not good!" the young pilot exclaimed. The young woman looked from him to their now-mutual attacker. With a burst of effort she flung herself at the mad seijin again, this time with her elbow coming down hardest in a wrestling move that Mahad could have sworn he'd seen before. He didn't question it though. Instead he seized the opportunity to ram the madwoman as she threw the stranger bodily into the air. The girl landed with a thud and a cloud of dust just as the pilot managed to hit the insane seijinn over the head and knock her out cold. Satisfied that Shinsiki was unconscious, Mahad hurried over to check on the madwoman's intended victim.

The dark-haired teenager was slowly getting her bearings back, her ears ringing and her body aching from this latest blow to her already protesting body. She blinked and rubbed her eyes to try and get some of the dirt out when she noticed a shadow approaching her on the ground. She looked up to see a familiar hair cut and a pair of blue eyes almost gleaming in an otherwise shadowed face.

"Are you alright?" Mahad asked her as he knelt down. The girl looked as though she'd seen a ghost or something. Her eyes were wide and her face set in a rigid expression of utter shock. Her gloved hands were shaking as they came up slowly. She breathed something that he couldn't quite make out as she gingerly touched his shoulders to check that he wasn't an hallucination.

"You're alive…" she whispered, her bottom lip quivering a little. "I knew it! _I knew it_!" she threw her arms around him suddenly, catching him off guard. She pulled back with tears shining in her eyes and an ecstatic smile on her face. A cloud moved in the sky, allowing for a slightly different lighting to fall on the young man's face. The girl's eyes widened and she gasped, scuttling back from Mahad.

"You…you're…great skyland y-you're _my age_! That's impossible! You-you…" she stuttered

"Uh…I-I guess so, maybe….." the pilot stammered in wary, uncomfortable confusion. His gaze softened when he saw the way her eyes bulged and the way her breath was shallow and quick as she looked around, squinting and frowning. She was clearly disoriented and had just had a rather traumatic experience with the red-clad madwoman; at least Mahad would certainly have found it unsettling.

"I think you might have me mistaken for someone else." He said just as he heard his name being yelled out. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the girl's blue-grey eyes bulged even further and her jaw drop while he whipped his head around to see Dahlia and Wayan sprinting towards him.

"Mahad!" Dahlia shouted again as she pulled back the yellow light-string of her energy bow. The angle of her aim made the pilot look over to where Shinsiki was now rising to her feet again. Her lunge towards Mahad and the stranger was cut off abruptly by a yellow energy bolt which made her crumple to the ground. This time she stayed down. The two rebels hurried over to their friend.

"Are you okay?" Dahlia asked as she jogged over, Wayan at her heels.

"Who's that?" The dark-skinned rebel asked, looking at the slack-jawed, wide-eyed teenager with her long coat half-hanging off one thin shoulder. Like Mahad, she struck Wayan primarily as being disoriented.

"I don't know," Mahad replied. "Came out here to see that crackpot over there trying to strangle her,"

"Are you alright?" Wayan asked the girl as he approached her slowly, his hands out in a carefully non-threatening manner. The girl looked at him with disbelieving awe, flicking between the three of them whilst the green-eyed rebel knelt down next to her.

"It's okay; we're not going to hurt you." Mahad told her. She stared at him for a particularly long time. Dahlia was still keeping a careful eye on their new prisoner but occasionally glanced over at the teenager. Wayan took out his radio and called into Cortez.

"_Wayan, did ye find anything?" _The Captain's voice fizzled over the radio. The rebel second-in-command picked it up and clicked the button

"No sign of the bird. But we have run into an old acquaintance." Wayan said, glancing over at Shinsiki and then looking straight at the young woman in front of him "We found Shinksiki attacking a girl here."

There was a weary sigh on the other end at the mention of Shinsiki's name. Wayan could just see the Captain messaging his temple. Finally he asked,

"_Anyone we know?_"

"I've never seen her before…at least, I don't _think_ so." The green-eyed man said with a slight frown. Something about her seemed _very_ familiar…he just couldn't put his finger on it. He clicked the talk button on his radio again as scanned what he could see of her to make a quick assessment. He stood, turned around and walked a few paces away, lowering his voice so that she would have a more difficult time hearing him. However, she wasn't paying attention to him anymore. Dahlia had knelt next to her and was pointing to a scrape on her forehead. The young woman looked at her in that same disbelieving, dazed manner.

"Sir, I think she could use some help." Wayan said quietly into his radio "I'd be willing to bet she hasn't had a drink in more than a day at least and she looks exhausted. Besides, she might know a little more about how Shinsiki ended up here."

There was a pause on the other end before the Captain's gruff voice sounded over the link.

"_Alright. Bring 'er aboard_."

* * *

><p><strong>So there we go. Nice, long chapter for you guys with some drama and action sequences! So, please please pretty please drop me a review and tell me what you think so far!<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

_A/N: ANNND I'm alive!  
>Okay, so this fic hasn't been updated in a shamefully long time, but this kind of lapse will not happen again…soon. The chapter after this one is nearly ready as a matter of fact! Also, I've gone back and made a few editseditions to the earlier chapters. Just minor changes, but still. Anyways, without further ado, here you go! Please review._

**Chapter 5**

_**Year 2252 (Puerto Angel)**_

"How are you feeling, Mila?" The Vector asked as he walked into the lighthouse sitting room where she was currently resting on a couch. Mila had come to the lighthouse earlier that evening to visit the Vector and see how his latest invention was coming when she had come close to collapsing with an agonizing headache. She had briefly lost control of her powers, cracking a plant pot and knocking over a chair. After recovering from her brief episode she had taken the Vector up on his offer to stay the night whilst her children were away from the block and had retreated to the sofa. The old man hated this. He hated seeing his friend in such a state and he hated keeping it from her children. If she hadn't forced his solemn promise that he would keep his silence he would have told them already, for she was starting to deteriorate; He suspected it may be the effort that she was exerting to keep Lena and Mahad in the dark.

The woman stirred slightly from her half-dose at the sound of him entering and sat up. The old man walked around to face her and handed her a cup of warm liquid. She accepted the mug with a small smile of gratitude and nursed it between her cold hands, inhaling its scent. Her eyebrows rose and she looked up at the vector with touched incredulity

"Tea?" she asked "Where in skyland did you find herbal tea?"

"I still have friends with connections." The old man said with a conspiratorial wink as he took a seat across from her. The seijinn shook her head slightly

"Vector, this is expensive…forget the water, the herbs in here…"

"Drink it, Mila." The Vector said firmly, his tone brooking no argument. "You may not permit me to tell your children about this, which I _still _disagree with, but you _will_ permit me to do my best to try and help you."

The seijinn nodded in defeat, too drained to put up more of a fight. She sipped the remedy slowly, shivering slightly in spite of the beverage's heat. The Old man watched her worriedly with a sigh. He didn't fully know what was wrong with her yet, only that he suspected it may be degenerative. Unfortunately it was futile to try and pursue the topic with her. Indeed, she broke the silence before he could bring it up again.

"How is your invention coming along?" she asked. Without even realizing it he brightened, his passionate fervor for science and invention dominating his concern momentarily.

"Excellent!" he exclaimed, his eyes alight with excitement "I had Celia over earlier, she's already helped me with it."

"Could I see it?" Mila asked.

"Of course!" The Vector said. He rose and led her up the spiral stairs to where he was working on his latest project. It was rather large, larger than a table and had a console on it with a computer attached and a separate device hooked up with a hand print He had connected the whole thing to his 'light show projector' that he had been using to experiment with light waves a few months back before Mila's liberation. She had heard the story, of course, from the video diary that her children had kept for her which she had watched at least twice in the days since they were reunited: once with them and once by herself afterwards. It was the second viewing which had started to make her nervous about what her children were doing in spite of her fierce pride.

Mila looked at the invention coolly, though she felt a stir of apprehension. The Vector had already told her what he wanted to do of course, he wanted to try and figure out what made seijinn power tick. He had found that each seijin's energy bursts, each individual's power had a distinct signature. It was something that other seijinns were able to sense instinctively and something that the scientist wanted to study. His intentions were completely innocent; the Vector was one of those rare people who, while he possessed a practical side, had desire for knowledge for the sake of knowledge. But Mila also knew that the majority of the population was not like the Vector. This latest project, like many of his brilliant designs, could be extremely dangerous.

"If you look here," The old man said, interrupting her thoughts as he typed something into the computer and brought up some readings. They were each labelled according to the name of the seijinn who had volunteered their readings. "Celia, Lucas, Poe and Lena have already put their signatures into the computer so that I can compare them. See here," he pointed at the sharp spikes that were far steeper in the line in the middle than any of the others "That's Lena's and this here," he pointed to another set of readings and then a third "Are Lucas and Celia's."

"But what do these mean?"

"It's like a seijinn fingerprint. Everyone's is different. I'm wondering if I can pinpoint from this what it is about seijinn powers that makes it work…the existence of seijinns in and of itself is fascinating, really, it's such a recent development of human ability, relatively speaking anyway…"

Mila allowed him to ramble for a little bit and even reluctantly gave her own 'fingerprint'. It took some convincing. She felt too uneasy about how this thing would make it so very easy to track down a seijinn if it fell into the wrong hands. However, after a while to old man talked her into it for the purpose of looking into her strange malady. At her request, that reading was kept on a different file. She also reminded the Vector of his promise to keep her secret. He was no happier about that then she was about his invention, so she supposed they were even.

Thoughts of Mila's children made her sigh and look out the window, worriedly. They still hadn't gotten a communique from them, and that made her edgy. It was perfectly normal, of course, they had only been gone a day or so after all, but there was something strange. A few hours ago Mila had been teaching some of the seijinn children about their powers and they had all felt the same thign during their session; a strange new…power. A-a feeling, a very strong one that something very powerful and very angry had come somewhere it wasn't supposed to be.

Something very wrong was going on.

_**8888888888888**_

The St. Nazzair was just as Lena remembered, she thought. It was hard to tell when it wouldn't stop spinning around her and she couldn't concentrate much beyond putting one foot securely in front of the other. Wayam helped her onto the bridge whilst Dahlia and Mahad reluctantly carried the injured and unconscious Shinsiki aboard and into a somewhat seijinn-proof holding cell. The time traveler couldn't stop staring at them and felt torn when they continued into the interior of the ship to imprison and restrain the insane former guardian. When they turned the corner she finally tore her gaze away from their retreating backs and took in some of the other people around her. Who was the kid? She couldn't remember…The young girl next to him she recognized, of course, and felt a dull anger stir somewhere within her—it was strange for that to happen without the familiar rush that was at once both thrilling and unsettling. Much as she professed to hate her constant 'companion' she had to admit she noticed when it wasn't around.

Cheung and Lena watched Wayan lead the young woman inside. The green-eyed rebel saluted his Captain casually and returned to his post at the helm so that Cortez could talk to their new guest as she stood to the side of the computer. She had been positioned carefully so that she couldn't actually see any of the data on the thin screen. The Scotsman walked down the few steps from his elevated captain's wheel purposefully.

"My name is—"

"Cortez." She finished for him quietly. When he looked a little taken aback she scrambled for an explanation "I-I heard them say your name on the radio."

She was staring at him the same way she had stared at everyone else: like she was seeing a ghost. Cortez frowned and narrowed his eyes but made no remark about either her expression or the slip in the explanation of how she knew his identity. Instead he looked her over discreetly, noting the way she swallowed nervously, or rather tried to swallow. Her lips were dry and cracked and she looked unsteady on her feet.

"You got a name?" he asked.

"It's Le—Dianne." She rasped, correcting herself quickly and not meeting his eye. Had she not been so tired, she wouldn't have slipped like that. Cortez noticed said correction and frowned, but otherwise didn't remark on it.

"Got a last name to go with that?" he inquired instead with a definite air of suspicion to his tone. She caught herself and shook her head quickly this time. The captain shrugged, accepting the response. It was a 50/50 chance or less at having or knowing your family name in Skyland. Not that uncommon. He frowned slightly as he looked her over. Her long hair was dusted with sand and dirt and a little tangled and her clothes, while good quality, had seen better days too; the long trench coat she was wearing had a patch on one elbow and a few buttons which were slightly different sizes and colours as they had been replaced but was otherwise in pretty good condition. The captain's mind wandered a moment and he vaguely wondered if it had come from a similar place that Marcus had gotten his coat from, the coat that Mahad had claimed and had folded carefully in a storage closet on the St. Nazaire before going off to investigate that bird (if only he showed as much care for the state of Cortez's ship) but the captain forced himself back to the situation at hand.

Apart from her coat she was also wearing black gloves with a square hole on the back that showed a small patch of raw, dry skin. Her shirt was not visible thanks to the coat but the pants she had on were also clearly hand-me-downs, the colours a little faded and again patched. Her boots as well were filthy, but sturdy and good quality. Hm. She was sensible in investing in those; they'd be good for walking and riding an air-scooter. So, a nomad then— likely on the run and on the run for a long time. After glancing over her a second time, he again noted a few signs of exhaustion and dehydration.

"When was the last time you had a drink?" he asked her.

"I-I'm fine." She stammered. Her voice was hoarse and crackly, another indication of dehydration. She swayed with a bout of dizziness and had to steady herself against the console. Cortez automatically took a step forward but she steadied herself before he got closer than a step.

The teenager frowned slightly in a struggle to concentrate. She started to say something and then cleared her throat so that her second attempt was more audible

"Can I…um…can I sit down?" was the croak that escaped her lips. The Captain nodded and jerked his head at Cheung. The young boy quickly brought over a chair which their guest stumbled into. Again the teenager cleared her throat

"Thank you." She said quietly before averting her gaze, clearly uncomfortable. In truth, she felt her face burn at the vulnerability she was practically oozing. She hated appearing weak.

"Now, when was the last time you had a drink?" Cortez repeated.

"I said I'm fine." The teenager insisted stubbornly

"I asked ye a question." The Captain snapped. The young woman glared up at him rebelliously and then looked away again

"I'm not sure." She finally admitted

"More than a day?" Cortez pressed. The teenager sullenly looked down and set her jaw in an eerily familiar mannerism, remaining stubbornly silent. The Captain, who by this time was used to dealing with rebellious teenagers knew what answer the silence indicated.

"More than two?" he asked. The young woman shifted and tried to swallow again.

"Maybe." She finally said, shaking her head a little, "I'm not sure. A few eyebrows were raised, but nothing more. It was rare to find someone in skyland who wasn't dehydrated, but most people, even the poorest of the poor, got at least a few sips a day. That being said, it was far from unheard of and they believed her. Cheung was the first one to react. He jumped up and walked around the console to where she sat, taking out his water bottle and twisting off the cap as he did so. The girl's eyes widened and she stiffened slightly before peering at the young boy strangely. It was the first time she'd gotten a good look at him.

"No way…" she breathed disbelievingly, shaking her head slightly

"It's okay. I still have some of my ration left! I don't mind. I had some really juicy watermelon at lunch, so I don't need it." Cheung said with an almost overly-friendly smile, misinterpreting her reaction. The teenager shook her head again as though to clear it.

"Go on, take it." Cheung urged, offering her the water bottle.

"I can't give you anything." The teenager told him quietly

"That's okay!" he insisted. The flash of pride in those ice-blue eyes made him ease off a little as the new comer leaned her elbows on her knees and looked down. She was proud— and she was embarrassed. His expression softened slightly from the overly zealous friendliness.

"How 'bout you can owe me one later, okay?" he offered instead. The teenager looked up at him with another strange expression. Her gaze flickered to the water bottle and they could all see how much she wanted its contents. Finally she sat up and took the plastic container with a nod of thanks. Her eyes flickered around to various members of the crew before settling on Lena's blurred image through the translucent yellow screen as she took her first sip. She gagged on it and coughed a moment before throwing her head back and gulping the rest down.

When she was done she gasped in a sated gulp of air and wiped her mouth with her hand along the side of the index finger and thumb. She handed the now-empty water bottle back to the young computer genius.

"Thank you." She said, her voice now less croaky and a little stronger. "I owe you one. I mean it."

Just then Mahad and Dahlia returned. The teenager's head snapped up again at the sound of Mahad's voice.

"Okay, Crazy-Lady's all locked up and drugged up. So, do we throw her out the air-lock or fast-track to the siege for some more action?"

"We don't have time to deal with her right now, that block needs some relief and it'll take us a day to get there now as it is. Send someone to give her another dose of sedative from the medical bay and put 'er in the dark room and restrain her. Use the exelerium if you have to."

There was a slight bump as their guest nearly fell out of her chair. The young woman's eyes had started to slowly flutter shut with exhaustion, however something had obviously jarred her. No one but Lena, who was still partially obscured by the console, noticed that it was the word Exelerium that jarred her awake. The Rebels' guest shifted uncomfortably and mumbled an apology. The captain looked around at the bridge crew and then at their guest and sighed.

"Wayan, take over and set us a course. Dahlia, get back to the helm. Mahad you go with her and take Wayan's space and don't get cocky about it. I'll take Dianne here to somewhere she can get some shut-eye and I'll get someone to deal with our less friendly guest." He told them. They all snapped to their stations, though the dark-haired young woman noticed with an internal wince at the way that Dahlia stiffened at the name. Oh, why had she chosen that one? Sure, it wasn't totally a lie to say that her name was Dianne, but still…

'Dianne' swayed as she stood and might have fallen over if Cortez hadn't grabbed her arm to steady her. Her dizzy spell cleared briefly and she was able to stumble her way through in a haze, following her captain. Well, not her captain per se, but he would eventually be her captain…she shook her head slightly. She was too tired for this kind of paradoxical mental exercise. As a matter of fact, it was a bit too tired to do very much at all at the moment. If 'Dianne' had had a hard time remembering when her last drink had been, she'd be dammed if she knew when she'd last been able to sleep after running around trying to barter for supplies, dodging the Sphere madly and then getting herself into the mess that had prompted this little trip looking for some tool or another for the Vector on the black market. Somewhere through her sleep-deprived haze, however, she managed to register that Cortez was speaking again.

"I'm afraid we aren't really equipped for guests." He said in a tone that was not quite apologetic, but had been intended to be. "We have a full crew on deck the moment, so there's not a lot of room. Mahad did clean out a closet a while ago, so we can put a cot in—What the—? Urrghh, Mahad!" The Captain's brief, to the point explanation ended in a growl of frustration. In spite of his orders during their brief 'spring cleaning' a few weeks back at Puerto angel, the storage room he had been speaking of was still filled with bags of sand and soil that they sometimes gave to small farming blocks to help them out.

"That is the last time I let Mahad pair up with Cheng to get anything done!" he grumbled, irritated and put out rather than truly angry. The young woman smiled even as her head lolled a little. She stumbled forward, waving his irritation away.

"No, no…it's all good. This'll work…trust me, I've used worse." She mumbled as she collapsed onto one of the piles of sacks. She chuckled into the rough fabric.

"Gives a whole new meaning to hitting the sack, huh?" she asked as her eyes closed. She went limp, her body finally giving out and shutting down so that she could recharge with sleep and (unbeknownst to Cortez) soak up the sunlight that would start to pour in through the window, come dawn. At the moment it was merely the faint orange glow peaking out from twilight horizon.

Cortez shook his head slightly. That was one tired kid. She lay on the sack on her stomach; completely still save for the rise and fall of her breath. Her coat was half-hanging off one shoulder so that the sleeve trailed over her hand. The small patch of skin on the shoulder that was visible was bruised from her scuffle with Shinsiki. Her other hand was by her cheek; that wrist looked like it had a scrape along it. Both of her hands were gloved, he noted almost as an afterthought. He wondered vaguely just how she'd gotten to this state. But that was a question for another time. He had other things to worry about in the meantime.

With that he closed the door behind him and went off to deal with Shinsiki.


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: Okie Dokie, not too long a wait, like I promised and a nice, long chapter for you. This one delves a little bit into the past of one of the rebels, something that will be explored further in this story. So, please enjoy and REVIEW!_

**Chapter 6**

**The Future**

"You ever want to change out of those hospital pajamas?" Alice asked her companion after a long period of silence. This question was an awkward attempt at starting a conversation; recent years had left her a little out of practise when it came to small talk, not that she had been wonderful at it to begin with, really. The other woman looked down at the thin, itchy, pale green fabric she was still wearing and shrugged. It wasn't exactly comfortable and wasn't exactly warm. She supposed she should be grateful that she had been wearing the actual pajamas instead of the gown; she'd been able to maintain a shred of dignity this way at least.

"Yes, but they didn't exactly fold my clothes up by the side of the bed! There wasn't even the prison uniform anywhere." She replied, perhaps a little more tersely than she had intended. She mentally excused herself on account of the splitting headache she had developed in addition to the general ache all over her body. She knew this discomfort was a result of such physical exertion so soon and that wasn't even taking the amount of stress she was enduring into account for her temper. She looked away from Alice and leaned her pounding head against the cool glass of the window, crossing her arms over her chest to stop herself from shivering as she grumbled "Besides, all I care about is keeping my daughter safe."

Alice glanced over at her guest before clearing her throat a little guiltily. The rebel was not going to like this.

"Actually…that's one of the reasons why we had to spring you before you were fully recovered. The original plan was to wait until they tried to transfer you." Alice told her. The blood drained from her companion's face and she jerked closer to the former guardian, her arms tensed enough for a vein to be visible on her forearm and her face set in a rather intimidating expression.

"What's happened?" she demanded, her tone brooking no argument or pause in the explanation of Alice's statement. The red-haired woman bit her lip a bit before replying

"We think—we're not sure, mind— but we think that they might have…found her. There's a plan to send a large fleet of ships to one location, and considering it's only a debris field…well there are only a handful of people they want that badly and the list has been getting shorter and shorter. But it might not be her!" Alice quickly added upon seeing the pallor of her companion's face and the dangerous protective gleam in her eyes. "She still isn't the only one they're after!"

The rebel sat back in her chair and closed her eyes with a sigh, her heart pounding in her ears as her trembling fingertips went to her forehead. She couldn't lose Lena! The Sphere had gotten everyone else! Mahad, Cortez, Wayan, even Cheung! Alice wasn't exaggerating about how few of them there were still out there. As far as she still knew the only one out there left was…

"The Vector!" She suddenly burst out, sitting up again and looking straight ahead with determination.

"What?" Alice asked

"The Vector, she must have found the Vector! She's a smart girl and she knows him."

"And this is important, how?"

"It might not be, but it might be crucial. What if the Vector was working on something? Or what if…no…no, great skyland! She wouldn't!" Lena's mother breathed, pushing her head back against the head rest of her seat and closing her eyes. She took a deep breath and let it hiss out through her mouth before groaning and leaning forward to put her head in her hands.

"She _would_."

"Would or wouldn't what?" Alice demanded, irritated that she was missing out on some vital piece of information.

"We have to get there, and quickly!" her guest exclaimed urgently, her head snapping up again.

"My thoughts exactly, but she's good at covering her tracks. We don't even know where she's been exactly— she's hiding from us too! The Sphere might have a lead, but that's all. No one knows where she is, it's like she disappeared right off the map!"

"Must run in the family, her grandmother pulled off a neat little disappearing act for a while too, but that's not the point." She replied

"No, you're right. The point is that right now you're the only one with any kind of solid idea on where she might be!" Alice said. The woman in the passenger seat stiffened upon making another realization that hit her like a kick in the stomach. Her eyes narrowed as she looked around through the back window and then through the ones on either side. All she could see was a darkening orange sky and the occasional deserted piece of block. She looked over her shoulder and chose her next words with care.

"I don't think that you're the only ones to have figured that out. Why was our escape so easy, Alice? Check your radar; I think you'll find we're being followed." She said. The former guardian did so and then swore very vividly.

"You're right! It's not a patroller, so I didn't notice it at first! Damn, that was stupid! Stupid and complacent!"

"Oslo let me get away so that I could lead him to my daughter and maybe any escaped allies—like you—which means that he probably knows about Spencer, too." The escapee said. Alice looked over at her briefly

"You really know this guy. That time in his mind must have been really informative."

"He was the one invading my mind actually, and trust me when I say that it was not a pleasant experience," She relied tensely "and not only was it years ago, it took extreme circumstances for him to get control of me. I told him in no uncertain terms where to get off. He hasn't managed it since, though it's not for lack of trying."

The redhead glanced over at her and shifted uncomfortably in her seat, noting the hard look in the other woman's eye and the rigid posture when she spoke of it. Her hands clenched into fists and her mouth set itself in a grim line.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up." Alice said, suddenly and sheepishly aware that this was a very touchy topic and she shouldn't have brought it up. The other woman shook her head and made a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Most of my knowledge comes from experience. He's been after my daughter from the moment he found out about her existence, all I care about is keeping his grimy claws off her. I don't give a damn about what he does with me."

"So what do we do?" Alice asked. For a while neither of them spoke as the redhead navigated in a complex and intricate course intended to shake their unwanted tail.

"I have to die." Her companion said suddenly

"What?"

"You heard me, it's the only way he'll stop following us! Look, I've got a plan,"

88888

**Year 2252**

It took them a while after the fight to reach the besieged block; the wave sent out by the crashing firebird had done some damage by slightly knocking off the calibrations of their propulsion systems. Lena and Mahad were both bored sitting with Cheung, for they had nothing to do. None of the mosquito pilots would until the neared their destination, so he had decided to hang out on the bridge and stay better informed as well as spend time with his equally-bored sister.

Every once in a while, though, Mahad would glance over at Dahlia. This was not an uncommon occurrence, as a matter of fact most of them (including the blonde) half-expected it by now. What wasn't usual was the slight frown of perplexed thought that crossed his features when he did so. This expression was brought on by the fact that Dahlia seemed almost…uncomfortable the closer they got to the block. That was very out of character. Normally the blonde was cool as a cucumber before they went into battle, perhaps even eager or excited, but never...jittery. It was weird. As they got closer Cortez ordered Wayan and Mahad off to the mosquitoes, wanting to ram the sphere with the full force available to them. The teenager took the opportunity whilst they were going through the halls towards their mosquitoes to mention this.

"Hey Wayan," he said as they jogged around a corner "What's up with Dahlia? I've never seen her this jittery! Not even the time I swore I'd get her on April Fool's day!"

There was a long pause.

"It's not really my story…" Wayan said hesitantly

"Oh come on! Something is obviously bothering her." Mahad exclaimed as they arrived at the hanger containing the little fighter ships "I'm just…worried." He confessed in a slightly quieter tone. The change in his voice made the other rebel slow to a stop. Mahad followed suit just short of their mosquitoes

"You really care about her, don't you?" Wayan asked. The younger rebel cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably.

"Course I do," he said before adding in what was almost a mumble "You know that."

The other rebel considered him for a moment before hopping into his Mosquito. Mahad followed suit. It was only after they were in their pilot pods and on the radio that Wayan finally said,

"Let's just say that Dahlia doesn't like to go home if she can avoid it."

"Home? Dahlia has the same home block as my mother? But wait, why doesn't she have the accent?" he asked, not realizing that he had pressed the wrong radio button and that he had broadcast it to the St. Nazaire command deck as well as Wayan's ship until Dahlia's voice answered him curtly through his receiver.

"_I haven't lived there since I was a child. And __**Puerto Angel**__ is my home block_." She informed the pilot coolly. "_Oxford has nothing for me, not anymore. Tell him what you want, Wayan_."

In his mosquito the pirate blinked

"You sure?" he said, pressing the correct button so that the other mosquitoes wouldn't hear him.

"_Yes_," she replied "_It's not like it's a secret and he isn't going to shut up until he knows_."

There was a long pause before Wayan finally responded with a slow and unenthusiastic 'alright'. He was spared any interrogation by the pilot in question when Cortez's gruff orders came over the radio.

"Everyone, stand by. We don't know what we might be up against. This could be a trap." He said before barking "Squadron formations!"

The mosquitoes promptly broke off and separated into smaller groups, each with a different tactical formation on different sides of the St. Nazaire. The group preceding the ship— which included Mahad and Wayan's mosquitoes— moved into a triangular shape with Wayan's little ship at its head and the others flanking him. The mosquitoes flanking the flag ship were each in two straight defensive lines and the ones behind were the inverse of the mosquitoes at point. In short, they appeared as they were: a force to be reckoned with as they headed off to battle. The excitement was almost palpable amongst the fighters in the smaller ships. They were all now accomplished pilots and couldn't wait for another opportunity to hone in their growing skills. They couldn't wait to see what was in store for them.

What they found in the cloud cover surrounding the Oxford Block simultaneously perplexed, relieved and disappointed them.

Nothing.

Cortez frowned.

"What's going on?" he asked aloud

"The space is clear sir," Dahlia responded as she, too, frowned and pressed a few buttons on the dash in front of her.

"She's right." Cheng said as he typed madly on his computer "I'm not reading any sphere ships in the area just…oh no." The little boy trailed off as some more of his scans came back. The others could quickly see what he was talking about when they broke through the cloud cover and were within visual range of Oxford.

The block had been devastated. There was smoke rising in thick, iron clouds from the charred buildings and gardens. A few of the structures were still burning, casting an eerie orange glow to the thick grey pillars of smoke. There was debris strewn everywhere, shingles strewn across the ground. There were large potholes in the asphalt roads and chunks of cobblestone and dirt missing out of the areas that were even more old-fashioned. One of the domed towers had a gaping hole in it and another had lost several feet in height by the looks of it. The grass, normally a reasonable shade of green (or at least one that resembled green) was now charred and black.

"_Cortez, are you seeing what we're seeing_?" Mahad asked in horror over the radio.

"Aye," Cortez said grimly. However, he barely glanced at the devastation before looking over to where Dahlia sat rigid in her pilot's seat, her eyes wide and her knuckles whitening as her grip on the steering device tightened. Lena looked over to where she sat as well, the seijinn slowly rising to her feet as she did so. In her head she could hear far-off, echoing screams as strange images flashed across her vision;

…_Two little girls were chasing each other around a tree, one taller than the other and clearly older, but both with dark eyes and blonde hair. They were laughing and squealing in delight at their game when suddenly a shadow fell over them and they slowed, looking up at the large ships blocking out the sun…_

…_A blonde woman with her hair coiled in a sophisticated knot at the back of her head with a pencil stuck behind one ear and wearing sleek, rectangular, academic-looking glasses on running with all her might. With one arm she clutched the smaller of the girls to her chest whilst her other hand had an iron grip on the older child's palm as she raced through the streets…_

…_screams…_

…_The same woman lying on the ground with a smoking wound in her back, one arm outstretched with an empty hand and the other by her head limply. Her spectacles lying about a foot from her face, the lenses broken and the frames slightly twisted. Her hazel eyes were wide and staring, sightless; her expression frozen in one of pained shock in spite of the smaller girl shaking her as hard as her small arms could whilst tearfully pleading with her to get up as the blasting sounds of continuing fighting crashed around her…_

…_someone swearing and grabbing the child, pulling them away barely a second before a shot whizzed through the spot where the little girl had just been kneeling. She was scooped up awkwardly with one arm as the person started running away, firing behind them as he went…_

…_the older child in a doorway with a pale man in black with an iron grip on her shoulder. The girls caught each other's eye and started reaching for each other._

"_Wanda?" The little girl being carried cried as her rescuer ducked to avoid a seijinn blast which narrowly missed them. There was a more distinct scream that was clearer than most of the others in the background as the blast hit a wall and brought it crumbling down between the two sisters_

"_WANDA!"_

Lena stumbled backwards with a slight cry as she was released from the visions. For once people didn't take much notice of this, they were too enveloped by the remains of the proud block. The Sphere really seemed to have done a number on it. Cortez shifted his attention from his second-in-command to the task at hand and shook his head sadly. He picked up the radio and recalled the mosquitoes. They would land the ship and search for survivors on foot with their own weapons. Lena jumped at the chance to finally do something when he asked her to tag along. This was a show of how uneasy he was; he usually tried to avoid relying on seijinn senses whenever he could. He also didn't particularly enjoy sending children into battle. Normally he couldn't help it; Lena and her brother got themselves into enough situations on their own and there was no stopping her when she decided to do something, but it wasn't normally Cortez giving the order for her to fight.

His thoughts drifted away from the increasingly troublesome seijin as Dahlia passed by him. He put a hand on her shoulder to still her forward motion.

"Dahlia, you can sit this one out if you want." He said quietly, "I can assign you to guard the prisoner and the ship, no one would think twice about it."

The blonde looked him full in the eye. He was offering her a way out that wouldn't compromise her pride and she was grateful to him for it. However, she shook her head.

"I appreciate it, Captain," she replied very calmly—perhaps too calmly "But I'm okay. I've seen blocks in this state before and I really don't like guard duty. Kale would be a better guard for both the prisoner and the ship, I don't think he'd mind."

This was true. The ex-gladiator had taken a liking to piloting a mosquito, but preferred to keep his fighting within a non-lethal sparring ring these days. One could almost think that he enjoyed guard duty. He certainly had a surprising soft spot for kids, so he certainly wouldn't mind hanging out with Cheng. Besides, if the prisoner did escape, he was certainly an experienced enough and powerful enough fighter to handle it…not to say that Dahlia wasn't dangerous herself. However, she preferred the mobility afforded to her by the scouting missions, the adventure. Even if it was the block she despised.

The Captain sighed and nodded, noting her logic.

"Besides," Dahlia said in a lower, less rigidly controlled tone, "I'd just go crazy thinking about it in here and not being able to do anything."

Cortez nodded again and stood aside to remove the block from her path that he had temporarily provided. He watched walk off the bridge, taking out the small device that would activate into her energy bow as she did so. He worried about her, he worried about all of them. He'd watched both her and Cheng (and to a certain, albeit lesser extent Wayan) grow up. He felt responsible for them. He always had. And he was pretty sure that he always would.

8888888

The streets of Oxford were deserted as the rebels walked through them looking for survivors. They had split up to cover more ground. Wayan had taken a couple of the Mosquito pilots, as had Cortez. Mahad and Dahlia were the smallest scouting team of two. Lena was tagging along with the Captain. Every once in a while her face twitched slightly and she would shake her head as though trying to get rid of an irritating fly buzzing in her ear. It was irritating too, both for Lena and her current companions. The young seijinn could hear a strange, unintelligible whispering in the back of her mind that was just loud enough to make it difficult to ignore and indistinct enough that she couldn't make out any distinct words in the whispering.

"Lena, can ye sense anything?" he asked her after a few minutes, his blaster gripped in his hands even as he inquired this. The Seijinn jumped slightly when he spoke and looked a little confused for a second.

"What?" she said "Oh, right,"

She frowned slightly in concentration

"I don't know…" she said after a brief pause "I think…no, I _know_ that I'm sensing something. There's people still alive here."

"Are they the Sphere or the people who live here?"

"It doesn't work that way," Lena said, bristling slightly. Cortez restrained himself from rolling his eyes, but he was getting a little tired of the young seijinn's increasing arrogance. Instead he kept his eye out and listened carefully. Dahlia wasn't the only one who didn't have the fondest memories of this block.

"_Wayan, Dahlia, see anything_?" he asked over the radio.

A few buildings over Dahlia pulled her radio out of her belt and held it up to her mouth.

"Nothing yet, Captain. It's so…deserted."

"Yeah, it's like a ghost town." Mahad pitched in. There was a slight, gruff sigh that could be heard on the other end of the radio

"_Alright, keep looking. There have to be survivors somewhere. Keep an eye out for the sphere_."

"Noted, Captain." Dahlia replied, ending the brief conversation as they all continued to look. Mahad took advantage of the time with the radio off to sidle up to her. It was not in his usual flirtatious manner though. Instead his body language was far more tense, nervous. It was a strange thing, seeing him unsure of himself. He normally exuded a confidence that bordered on (and frequently crossed into) arrogance. Yet, here he was, clearing his throat, shifting awkwardly, tripping over things, barely meeting her eye, putting his hands in and out of his pockets…

Finally he managed to blurt out what he had been thinking about ever since his conversation with Wayan.

"So…um…you're from here?" he said hesitantly with a clearly forced conversational tone. Dahlia rolled her eyes.

"I was born here, yeah." Dahlia replied. "But this isn't home."

"No, no. I got that earlier." Mahad said quickly, kicking a pebble in his path so that it bounced off with a slight clatter on the road they were walking on. There was a faint aroma of smoke in the air as they passed the charred remains of something. It was a small consolation that what was burning appeared to have been inorganic. The pair stopped and looked at it for a moment, realizing that, if the few stray pages were any indication, it had been a small pile of books.

"I guess things have changed a little since you were here before," Mahad said distantly. He glanced over at his companion. The young woman didn't look at him and instead stared at the books a little longer with a distant look in her eye. A flash of memory struck her powerfully. For a brief moment she was five years old again with smoke filling her nostrils as she was bounced against the chest and shoulder of the woman carrying her, screams and gunfire echoing in her ears along with the rasping sound of her mother's terrified breath as she ran for their lives, the pressure of her mother's arm clutching her close. It was gone as soon as it began. She shook her head.

"About the same." She answered Mahad with a shrug before finally looking him "Just a little quieter. Common, let's get going."

The young man blinked at this, but followed her nevertheless. He knew he shouldn't ask any more questions, though one was burning on the tip of his tongue. Dahlia glanced over at him and sighed, rolling her eyes.

"You want to know more?" She asked

"Well, you know all about me…" he trailed off suggestively.

"Pretty much everybody knows all about you by now, Mahad. You're not exactly good at low profile." She replied.

"That's not my fault! Not…completely anyway. Alright, so some of it I might have told people myself,"

"More like most of it," Dahlia teased "Though I suppose you couldn't control having two of the most powerful seijinns in Skyland in your family or Marcus Farrell as your father."

"So what about you? If this relationship is ever going to work, we need to be honest with each other." Mahad said as he jumped in front of her slightly so that he was facing her and jogged backwards to keep facing her, shrugging. He had resumed his bravado to try and return to his comfort zone in this very uncomfortable conversation. Dahlia stopped and gave him 'the look': the one that practically screamed 'in your dreams'. She pushed past him and continued walking, looking straight ahead with her mouth set in a thin, tense line. The dark haired young man seemed to deflate slightly as he followed a couple of steps behind. As they passed a particular building, however, Dahlia stopped again.

They were standing outside of what had been (and as far as Mahad knew still was) used as housing for a dean or faculty member. It looked a lot more recent in architectural style and build than the majority of the block's structures but was indeed quite nice. It was a modest 2-story house tucked into a corner of the large courtyard of the large dorm buildings. it was made of cherry red and brown brick with light brown shingles on the roof and a waist-high fence around it. A cute little place to be sure. It, too, was damaged. The fence was burnt and singed, chunks of it missing. The blonde walked up to it and slowly put a hand down on the broken post. Her hand came away from it black with soot. She shook her head with a slight scoffing sound.

"Of course it's recent." She muttered to herself in a chastising tone. "What did you think it would be?"

"What?" Mahad asked. She turned around but didn't answer his question. Instead her brown eyes widened slightly and in one swift motion she had activated her energy bow and drawn back the yellow light-string, shouting for Mahad to 'get down!'. The young man hit dove over the small fence and rolled up into a crouch. He then twisted slightly and whipped out his boomerang. There was a tense moment punctuated only by the sounds of a blaster charging as the two rebels faced a man holding a blaster that was pointed at them.

"Who are you?" Their 'attacker' demanded. Mahad frowned and stood slowly. He recognised that voice. With the sun in their eyes it was tricky to tell, so he lowered his boomerang and shaded his eyes with his hand.

"Hey, wait. I know you!" He said. The man lowered his gun and took a step forward out of the shadows. Dahlia lowered her bow when he did so.

"Yeah! Hey! You're that guy who was with Oslo's brother back on Vandagaard!" The red-clad rebel exclaimed with a sort of mild excitement. As he got closer Dahlia, who had only briefly met either this individual and the man he devotedly served, recognised him too and deactivated her weapon.

"You're Mahad, aren't you? You and your sister brought Oslo to Vandergaard and then got us out when he tried to kill Master Darius," he said slowly.

"Mahad, we're not alone," Dahlia murmured out the corner of her mouth as she did what a lot of people still didn't do, even in Skyland; she looked up. There were people in upper story windows that were also armed. He knew better by now than to respond to that verbally but nodded to her discreetly as he continued to talk with Darius' aid.

"Yeah, I'm Mahad. Mahad Farrell." He said. Dahlia raised an eyebrow at this but said nothing. The man, Darius' aid, seemed to relax and even smiled. He looked up to the spots where the (for lack of a better word) snipers were waiting, ready to fire.

"It's alright. I know them." He said. The blonde pirate followed his gaze and saw a haggard but tough-looking woman standing in a second-story window with what looked like an old rifle trained on them. When she caught Darius' aid's eye she nodded curtly and jerked her weapon upwards, holding it against her shoulder like a pro. Dahlia's eyes narrowed slightly and she frowned, glancing around to the others that she had noticed to also withdrew their weapons. Within seconds they emerged on the streets. It was only then that the two rebels could see just how…_makeshift_ these weapons were. The woman from the window was carrying an old rifle, one that used bullets rather than energy blasts. Another had a crossbow, two held only slingshots and another was twirling only knives. All but two, including their previous acquaintance, were women. All of them looked pretty beat up. The woman with the rifle had a long, scabbed-over gash down one side of her face from eye level to jaw and a rip on the shoulder of her sweater, bearing an angry, raw-looking patch of skin. Both of the other women were sporting bruises and burns and the other man had a square bandage on his forehead and a fat lip.

"So, you're Pirates then, are you?" the woman with the rifle and the gash on her face asked gruffly. She had the same smooth, precise british accent as Mahad's mother.

"Well we're obviously not the Sphere!" Mahad exclaimed, eyeing the rifle she gripped by the barrel with apparent offense. He looked up to meet the woman's hard black gaze.

"Not every enemy is uniformed." She informed him. She spread her free hand in a gesture that encompassed their surroundings "You think the Sphere did _all_ of this?"

"Well, yeah." Dahlia said "We did."

The rifle-woman, apparently the small band's leader, let out a short, harsh laugh.

"The Sphere is organized." She informed them, jerking her head in a silent command that the rebel pair follow as she started to stalk off down the street, the gun in both hands again "And they aren't looking to destroy us. Apart from our historical significance, too many of their braniacs are proud alumni of the university."

"Your education standards didn't exactly protect you last time." Dahlia commented bitterly. The rifle-woman stopped and turned, scrutinizing the blonde. The young woman met her gaze unflinchingly. "The Sphere took you to town during the last rebellion quickly enough." Rifle-woman looked ahead and started marching again.

"Call up your captain. We know that you came in the St. Nazaire."

"Then why were you ready to shoot us?" Mahad asked, affronted.

"Because we couldn't be sure that your ship hadn't been, well, _hijacked_." Darius' aid piped in.

"What are you talking about?" Dahlia asked.

"We'll talk about it when we've rounded up everyone." Was rifle-woman's answer. Almost as if on queue Cortez's voice sounded over the radio.

"_Dahlia, Mahad, come in. We've found some survivors," _

"Yeah," Dahlia said as they kept walking, "Us too."

"Did yours try to shoot you?" Mahad asked sullenly.

"_What_?" Cortez demanded

"We're fine, Captain." The blonde said quickly.

"Tell him to rendezvous with us at Brewer Street." Rifle-woman said. The blonde pirate didn't look away from her as she pulled the radio closer to her mouth to answer.

"Did you get that captain?" She asked. There was a slight pause where only the faint static customary with their radios sounded between them. After about a minute or so, however, the captain had his answer for them.

"_Aye_,"

* * *

><p><em>So there we go, another chapter. The next one has a little more drama, a serious twist and some wading into some pirate actions that would have probably had rather mixed consequences. Please review and tell me what you think so far. <em>


	7. Chapter 7

_**Authors Note: The usual: Terribly sorry about the long wait. Usual excuses too—been extremely busy with schoolwork and then with family stuff. Nevertheless, happy New Year everyone! The next chapter will not take anywhere near as long. Oh, also, for the record, in order to simplify my life simpler, the * sign followed by italics within a quotation indicates Future Lena speaking in the layered, echoy phoenix voice that I described before when the Phoenix speaks through her. **_

_**Please leave me a review.**_

_**Chapter 7**_

_**Year 2252**_

They all met up at the street which Rifle-woman had wanted. Cortez's group had indeed met up with their own set of Oxford residents, as had Wayan. This group also looked pretty beat-up, but resilient. Somewhere in the back of his mind the captain wondered where they were getting the medical attention they had been receiving; several of them had half-healed injuries that were mending properly and the bandages looked both clean and fresh. The two groups walked towards one another down the street until both parties simultaneously stopped a few meters from one another. If an outsider were to look in on this it would look more like some kind of prisoner exchange than a meeting of potential allies until the residents of the bloc from Cortez's group closed the gap and started to merge the two parties. The slightly battered-looking people took their spots around rifle-woman as Dahlia and Mahad walked over to Cortez. It seemed that she was their leader.

Rifle-woman looked at Cortez and squinted a moment and then smirked slightly in recognition and shook her head, chuckling dryly.

"Ahh, Cortez. You don't call, you don't write, what's a girl to think?" she drawled in what might possibly be a good natured way as she set her rifle down so that the muzzle dug into the ground and she could rest her forearm on the butt of the gun casually. The captain blinked

"Victoria?" he asked. Rifle-woman spread her arms slightly and smirked again

"In the flesh." She replied "So, I guess you're still flying Chia's ship, then are you?"

"Chia's ship?" Mahad echoed in confusion.

"Aye." Cortez said, "It's been a long time."

"Yes, it has." Rifle-woman— Victoria— replied. "I'm afraid you never seem to visit when we're, er, presentable. People will start to wonder if you're a bad omen." Some of the palpable tension between the two parties started to lessen with this exchange, though it was still a little awkward. Finally the two leaders seemed to feel inclined to include their subordinates in the conversation.

"This is my crew." Cortez said in his usual, gruff manner, sweeping his hand brusquely to indicate the pirates before rattling them off one by one in a brief introduction. He finished with the Farrell Siblings "…and this is Mahad and Lena,"

"We've heard a lot about you two," Victoria commented. It was difficult to read her tone. Cortez had been expecting this interruption and was not fazed by it, instead rattling off the names of a few of the mosquito pilots before finishing off with his two second-in-commands.

"…and this is Wayan and Dahlia. Everyone, this is Professor Victoria Elliot."

Professor Elliot's head had snapped to attention at the last name and looked over at the blonde sharply, though her gaze while looking the blonde over more closely was almost sad. She blinked.

"Dahlia?" She repeated as she slowly looked back at Cortez accusingly. She picked up her weapon again to carry it and raised her eyebrows once as she started walking again "I see. Well, come. We'd better get going. This space is too open and vulnerable to stay here too long. This way."

Cortez fell into step with her quickly and took another look at their surroundings.

"Victoria, what happened here?" he asked "Why were you about to attack us? You _know_ the St. Nazaire!"

"We couldn't be sure it was you." Victoria replied as they turned a corner, her eyes darting about warily for signs of trouble. Cortez copied her more out of his own perpetual habit of caution than anything else. After a while he pointed out what seemed obvious to him

"Why wouldn't it be us? I'm pretty sure the Sphere wouldn't exactly keep quiet if we'd fallen."

"You lot really do have tunnel vision when it comes to those blighters, don't you?" Victoria scoffed

Just then something made Lena stop and whip around. Her brother and Dahlia paused along with her, as did the rest of the group a few moments later. The young seijinn's eyes narrowed and she peered into a small alley way. Her brother noticed this and stopped, as did Dahlia.

"What's the matter, Squirt?" he asked.

"I'm…sensing something…" Lena said. This made Cortez slow and turn around with a scowl as he looked at their surroundings and raise his rifle slightly. Victoria held up a hand to still her group, but looked quizzically over at Cortez.

"What's going on?" She asked slowly.

"When Lena gets these feelings it's rarely something good." He half-growled. Just then there was a rustling sound and one of the 'shadows' moved.

"Get down!" Lena yelled, sending a blast of energy toward the man that had been about to shoot at them, sending him sprawling to the ground with a cry of alarm. This was followed by a series of clicks where pinpoints of light started appearing on each of the party. Victoria looked around to see other figures emerging with weapons in hand.

"AMBUSH!" she bellowed

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In a storage room on the Saint Nazaire, the rebels' teenaged guest started to toss and turn. She had been sleeping like a rock for several hours as her body caught up on some much needed rest. Now, however, as the sun's rays shone on her face. She frowned and made muffled noises as her hands came up to her ears instinctively. In her head there was a crowd of whispering voices started to get louder and louder, all crowding in on her mind, all tripping over one another in a jumbled, nonsensical racket. Lena curled in on herself, her fingers burying themselves in her hair and digging into her scalp, pressing her palms flat against her ears in a pointless attempt to quiet them down.

"No…there's too many of you…too loud, stop! STOP!" The last word was a near shout as she bolted into a sitting position, her chest heaving as she gasped for breath a few moments before bringing her knees up to her chest and covered her ears with her hands again. She clenched her teeth and screwed her eyes shut as she slowed her breath.

"Concentrate, Lena, _concentrate_. You can shut them out…" she murmured to herself as she rocked back and forth "It's _your_ mind, they're _your_ powers. You can do this, you can make them shut up…" slowly, gradually she relaxed and her mental shields slowly went back up and the voices were silenced. She leaned her head slowly back against the wall and then thumped it twice against the metal, listening to the deep, echoing clang that the action prompted. The hollow sound was strangely comforting. She opened her eyes slowly and looked around slowly. She let out a short, disbelieving laugh.

"It wasn't a dream." Lena whispered to herself "Great Skyland, I'm actually here… _now_ what do I do?"

Lena took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. She ran a gloved hand up one side of her face, her fingers combing through her hair. More strands were escaping her quickly matting ponytail and making the sides of her neck itchy. She cricked her neck with a grimace; she was still sore from her little 'tumble'…how long ago had that been? The teenager whipped her head around towards the door and jumped to her feet. She needed to find a window. How long had she been asleep?

Shrugging her coat more securely over her shoulders she headed for the door and turned the wheel, expecting to meet resistance. It wasn't locked. She pushed it open and looked around in the hallway cautiously as the creaking sound echoed off the walls. Lena shifted uncomfortably before taking slow but determined steps forward, the sound of her boots against the metal floors rebounding the same way the creaking door had. Her eyes narrowed as the hairs on the back of her neck rose and she stopped at a corner. She had the inexplicable feeling that someone was behind her…

The young woman whipped around, her braid slicing through the air as she dipped into a slight fight-ready crouch. There was no one there. As she turned around again more slowly her mannerisms started to change. She became more relaxed and casual, her arms swinging slightly as she moved as though in open invitation. Her eyes started to change colour with wisps of white light flitting across the now glittering seijinn blue irises. Almost cat-walking the hallway now, she slowed and cocked her head lazily, listening. She closed her eyes a moment and then opened them with a sly grin.

"*_Care to come out now, Spider?*" _She asked in the strange, layered voice of the phoenix. She whipped around and ducked low to the ground in one smooth motion, her leg sweeping the floor in time to trip the assailant who tried to attack her. The teenager straightened quickly and brought an unusually strong fist slamming into the man's side about where his kidney would be. He doubled over in pain and fell slowly to his knees as he wheezed.

"*_What's with the name, anyway? Or the get-up for that matter*?" _'Lena' asked, looking the assailant over. He was dressed in a strange sort of decorated cat-suit adorned with designs of webs and spiders making appearances all over it. The teen's eyes narrowed slightly as her head cocked one way and then another rapidly, honing in on the voice in her head that was closest at hand.

"*_Ah, I see. A trademark. You've been out of the game for too long, Assassin,*" _Her hand shot out over him, palm-down in a pushing motion, flattening him to that he was spread out face down on the ground, an invisible force crushing him to the floor.

"*_Too bad I'm not afraid of spiders.*" _PhoenixLena commented. Before her face twisted back into that terrifying snarl "*_Now, __**what were you after**__?*" _

"I'll tell you nothing you b—"

"*_Ah-ah-ah!*" _PhoenixLena chided, tilting her head slightly and narrowing her eyes in a chastising, mocking mannerism as she whispered in a put-on British accent"*_Language, sir, language! Mind your manners, will you? Now answer the question, there's a good arachnid. You won't like the other option,*" _

Something in her voice, maybe it was the eerie layered quality or simply the fact that she was currently pinning him to the floor with what could only be seijinn power with enough force to immobilize and even pain him to the point where breathing was a struggle, made him frightened.

"Wh-what's…the other option_?" _He wheezed.

"*_You really want to know?*" _PhoenixLena half-enquired-half-threatened. Apparently, he didn't. When she eased off the pressure on him fractionally he told her what she wanted to know.

"Are…are you satisfied?" The Spider wheezed. His attacker stared down at him with those creepy seijinn-eyes at him for a moment.

"*_I must admit…I didn't expect that had been the case so very soon.*" _She said reflectively. Without warning the hand over him shot to the side in a smacking motion that sent his head jerking to the side before he went limp. A quick glance over aided with her seijinn senses told the young woman that he was merely unconscious, though he may suffer later effects of their encounter.

_See? I spared him for you.: _The Phoenix thought smugly to her currently silent human counterpart before stepping over the Spider casually. After that Lena (who had been a sort of bystander through the altercation with the assassin) saw blue and knew no more as the Phoenix took over completely.

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The teenaged seijinn stumbled with a gasp and pressed herself into the corner of the nearest doorway, sinking down slowly to the ground. She swallowed and panted as her hands went out to either side of her. She was shaking, disoriented, confused. She looked around, trying to take in her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was the Phoenix and the Spider…

The sounds of shooting and fighting made her look around sharply. She had completely blacked out, with no idea how she had gotten to the block and who knew what It had done whilst she was "out". Anger stirred within her along with another all-too-familiar feeling that was imperative to quell. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes in concentration, her nostrils flaring with each painfully noisy breath. Once she was certain that she was not going to be "leaving" again immediately Lena—

No. _Dianne. _She had told them that her name was Dianne. She'd have to refer to herself that way even in her head if she could manage it just in case anyone got past her shields—an unlikely event in and of itself, but she'd already made mistakes in this hair-brained trip so far.

Slowly getting to her feet Dianne stepped out onto the street that she was on, trying to orient herself. This particular area of the block was deserted but she could either hear or sense (she wasn't always sure when sensory information was her own anymore) the fighting that was going on _somewhere_ on this block, and it involved _her_ family. She walked down the street, listening very carefully and trying to restrict the incoming information to that from her eyes, ears and nose. As she passed an old store window her reflection caught her eye, making her pause and stare a second. The next moment she swore vividly and started to rummage almost frantically in one of the larger pockets of her coat. She withdrew an elaborate, decorated, collar-like piece of material and took off her gloves to hook the edges together at the back of her neck with a clasp. The bead-embroidered piece covered her neck from chin to collarbone curving down at the centre to completely obscure any flesh in that area. Nervously using the faded reflection in the foggy window, she adjusted the collar to make sure that no skin apart from that on her face was visible and then pulled out more hair from her braid to join the strands that framed her face, obscuring it slightly. It would have to do. She stooped to the ground to pick up the discarded gloves. The motion shifted the sleeve of her coat up, however, baring her wrist. Another frantic rummage through her pockets failed to yield the arm guards which matched the collar.

"I must have left them on the table after repairing them!" Dianne half-whispered-half-moaned to herself. Well, she still had the gloves which she yanked on quickly before tearing off down the street after the sound of a firefight.

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Cortez was not happy.

He did not tend to enjoy it when his crew was trapped in a firefight. He didn't know where all these dammed people had come from or why they had decided to fire on them. He wasn't entirely sure where they were, either. They'd situated themselves well and had strangely effective weapons. Lena had thrown up a shield over them to deflect the blast, but the clock was ticking; sunset was in mere minutes. They weren't able to fire back, hoping to save their ammunition whilst their attackers wasted theirs.

"Now you see why we were concerned!" Victoria half-yelled over the only slightly-muted din around them.

"Who are they?" Dahlia asked, her energy tightly gripped in one hand and activated.

"That's what I'd like to know, too!" Cortez growled. Victoria blinked and looked from one rebel to the next.

"Are you serious?" she finally asked. When they gave her blank looks her mouth fell open slightly and then closed again in a thin line, elaborating "They're criminals."

"Lena, how long can you keep that shield up?" Cortez asked. She was looking up at the dome that she had created to concentrate.

"Ages! They can't get through this with _those_ weapon—ahh!" the young girl's confident reply was cut short when a canister hit her shield: both shield and container shattered almost simultaneously as the smoky black substance spread across the ground.

"Lena!" Mahad exclaimed, rushing forward to catch her as she reeled back wildly in attempt to get away from the exilerium. That was around the point that all hell broke loose. The rebels and residents both dove for cover behind some abandoned cars and corners of buildings at the intersection. Dahlia had ducked into a house through a door and pressed herself against the frame to shoot. Victoria ended up there too with her rifle. The blonde took careful aim and then fired. She ducked to avoid the reflected shot.

"They've got a seijinn on that roof." She said as she strung another energy-arrow.

"Then what exactly are you doing? You can't reach them!" Victoria said.

"Maybe not _them_," Dahlia said as she took careful aim, focusing her targeting device first on the shadowy figure of their seijin on top of a shingled roof and then shifting her bow down a couple of inches and released the arrow. It flashed through the air and blew apart two of the shingles beneath one of the seijin's feet. He lost his balance and toppled over, sliding down the roof and landing on the exelerium-drenched street and started screeching and running with his arms pin-wheeling to get away from the stuff. Professor Elliot raised her eyebrows, impressed, and looked over at her current companion.

"Not bad!" she commended

"Thanks," Dahlia replied as she strung another bolt of yellow and looked for a new target. Victoria Elliot looked at her long and hard as she fired again.

"Admittedly this may not be a good time, but do you remember me…at all?"

"What?" Dahlia asked as she released an arrow.

"Never mind." The other woman replied. She leaned out the window and raised her voice to a bellow directed at Darius' aid.

"Baldur! You know where to go." She barked at him. The middle-aged gentleman nodded curtly and dashed over to where Mahad and Lena were perched around some old crates, the pilot kneeling in front of his sister with him between her and the seemingly new brand of exelerium that was still making her twitch a little. The young man nodded to him to acknowledge that he had heard her, too and Baldur rushed over to pass the message on to Cortez. Mahad crouched further, offering up his back to Lena for a piggy-back ride so that she wouldn't have to touch the smoky black stuff. Dahlia jumped forward out of the doorway to provide cover for them; they couldn't exactly keep low if Mahad was carrying his sister. Lena slid down to the ground again when they reached the house. Victoria came out as well with her rifle firing.

"Follow me!" she said.

"You guys go, I'll cover for you!" Mahad said, ushering Lena forward. The young seijinn wasn't so complacent with this, neither was Dahlia.

"Mahad are you crazy? All you've got is that boomerang!" The blonde snapped at him.

"This thing is a dangerous weapon!" the pilot exclaimed indignantly. He wasn't accustomed to defending his choice of weapon to Dahlia of all people.

"Sure against stupid brigs or one on one! And that wasn't on—" she shut her mouth with an audible snap before she could finish what she had been about to say; that his previous victories hadn't been on this cursed block. She declined, though, and instead re-strung her bow. "I'll help you."

"No, ye're going to make sure everyone gets to safety!" Cortez growled as he ran over to them and took out his blaster-revolver.

"But captain—"

"That's an _order_, Dahlia." He emphasized. Lena shifted uncomfortably to look around for signs of danger during this uncomfortable exchange. She knew what the others didn't: she knew how Dahlia felt about this place. She could sense rather than see when Dahlia jumped slightly at Professor Elliot's hand on her arm.

"Come on, dear. We need every weapon to get everyone back in one piece—"

"Wayan look out!" Lena cried in sync with someone else. The rebels all whipped their heads around to see someone jump down from a ledge to tackle the rebel bringing up the rear and providing the cover fire that the others had been arguing about providing. The assailant caught him from behind and managed to loop his arm around the man's neck. He fell to the ground hard with the criminal on his back pulling his head up via the arm pressing on his neck and restricting his air flow.

"WAYAN!" They all cried just as someone else screamed "Leave him alone!"

Out of nowhere the young woman who had introduced herself to them the day before as 'Dianne' came barrelling into the man on Wayan's back, pushing him off so that the rebel could roll away. The man who had attacked him was scruffy and large, adorned with various gaudy tattoos like a skull on the back of his shoulder blade. He was large, too, and grabbed the girl who had tackled him by her neck, proving his brute strength when he started to lift her.

"Hey!" Wayan and Mahad both yelled, the latter throwing his boomerang. The large, beefy man let out a wordless growl and flung the girl into a building. She managed to flip somehow in the air and land in a crouched position where she stayed for a moment, glad that they had been too distracted to see her face start glow as It tried to assert itself again. She took the moment to regain control and jumped back into the fray amidst the shots being fired. This time the man rammed her before she could attack, throwing the pair of them onto a set of stone steps leading up to someone's door. Dianne instinctively shot an arm out to break her fall only to land with the full force of her weight and the criminal's right on her arm. She howled in agony as she felt something break. The pressure of the other man's weight was quickly removed when Wayan pulled him off her and shoved him towards Mahad's boomerang. The criminal ducked to avoid the missile and then fell over when one of Dahlia's energy arrow struck his tattooed shoulder.

"Are you alright?" Wayan asked the young woman. She rolled over onto her front and groaned, cradling her arm and clenching her teeth in a wide grimace. He said something about getting out of there while helping her to her feet and steering her off in the same direction as the rebels. After a few steps he noticed something.

"Were you wearing that thing on your neck before?" he asked

"Of course I was!" The young woman half-groaned-half-snapped, wincing again.

The rest of the trip was a bit of a blur of mad dashing and weapons' fire as they somehow managed to lose their pursuers and duck into a building that…really didn't look at all abandoned. It defied the rebels' expectations in that. They had been expecting a deceptively worn-out looking building. Professor Victoria headed the pack and made a swiping motion with her hand and held the door open for them, ushering them in wildly before slamming the door shut again behind Wayan and Dianne, pressing a few buttons and flashing what turned out to be an ID card over a scanner.

"Wait, won't a locked door be a clue?" Mahad asked as Professor Elliot grabbed his arm and dragged him along to prevent any further delay.

"Oh no, they're _all_ locked. We made sure they all were as soon as we realized someone was coming." Baldur supplied "We've been sneaking out at night to repair them so that they'll have a hard time guessing where we actually are."

"What _happened_ here?" Wayan asked as he supported the dark-haired young woman hunched over her injured arm.

"It's not that complicated," Victoria said as she lead them, still either crouched or crawling, to another room where they could stand and walk "First we had a Sphere raid—wasn't too bad, they like our architecture too much to demolish it—and then immediately after we were attacked by the band of thugs you met out there."

She pulled off a rug to reveal and old-fashioned trap door which she pulled open to reveal a staircase.

"Like it? I had it installed a few years ago." The Professor said casually as she started her descent down the stairs.

"But…those guys! Why were there so many of them?" Mahad asked. Their guide stopped halfway down the stairs and turned to look at them with raised eyebrows. She looked first at the pilot who was a little taken aback with the intensity of it and then at Cortez.

"Organized crime. It's skyrocketed in the last month or so." She remarked "Started happening right after Karzem broke up."

"What?" Lena exclaimed. Victoria stopped and turned to face them, a look of mild anger and annoyance in her expression as she looked at each of the rebels.

"I'm sorry, but who exactly did you think was _in_ that prison?" she asked them. When they gave her nothing but a confused look her eyebrows rose. "Did you _honestly_ think that it was only noble, innocent rebel martyrs who were thrown in that place?" when they continued to stare blankly at her she rubbed her temples with her fingers. "Oh, dear lord. You didn't think at all about it, did you?"

The woman shook her head with a sigh and jogged down the rest of the winding stair. The rebels exchanged glances. Crime rates had gone up, they knew that, but they hadn't realized that it was as bad as they had just seen. The other Oxford residences said nothing to them but kept leading them down the cramped, curling staircase.

What felt like a long trip, though what was in truth only a few stairs or so, the claustrophobic walls disappeared to be replaced by a railing…and a view of the make-shift hospital which lay before them.

The room resembled a refugee camp more than anything else. Cots lined the walls on all sides, some surrounded with curtains where there was room, though not all of them. On the floor were rectangles drawn with brightly coloured tape, creating walkways for medical personnel to wheel a trolley through or navigate easily. Within the tape rectangles were piles of blankets and sleeping bags where the young and healthy appeared to be spending their time and their nights. Everyone seemed to be pitching in though. Some of the children seemed to have made an odd game of folding sheets and clothes into interesting shapes to pass the time whilst the teenagers and (presumably) students were meticulously cleaning equipment and pounding bandages. Amongst the low din and general busy-ness, however, the rebels spied a face that they knew.

"Master Darius!" Baldur beckoned.

A blonde man turned from his work and smiled at them. It was a face the rebels recognised for more than their personal familiarity with him but also for his slight resemblance to his twin brother: Oslo. The resemblance was only that, though: slight. He was around the same height as his brother with a similar, average build, pale skin and grey eyes. That was where the similarities ended. For one thing Darius, unlike his brother, still had hair which was cropped around his ears and a darker shade of dirty blonde. His eyes were also, whilst the same color as his brother, not nearly as sunken into his head and lacked the deeply etched dark circles under his eyes. His clothes still sort of hung off him and he didn't always look perfectly steady on his feet, though he had improved significantly since the last time the rebels had seen him. Then again, _not_ having your brother drain the seijinn energy out of you for several months was probably as beneficial as a trip to a lake-block.

Darius smiled at them in welcome and nodded them over.

"Lena, Mahad! It is good to see you again, though I only wish it were under better circumstances." He said as they approached.

"Hey Darius, buddy!" Mahad greeted, "You look great!"

"Yes, well some fresh air and some rest on that charming little block has done my health wonders." The man said with forced cheer. They all politely skirted around mentioning anything to do with Oslo; in spite of what he had become Darius had loved his brother dearly, enough to allow his brother to constantly drain his seijinn energy. It was the kind of unequal bond which meant that while Oslo barely thought of his brother when he wasn't draining him, Darius would mourn the madman who, as far as he knew, was dead. He didn't appear to be allowing himself to dwell on it, though.

"So, um, what are you doing here? I thought we dropped you off miles from here!"

"You did," Baldur said "We were visiting an old friend here."

"Who?" Cortez asked

"Me." Victoria said from behind them. When Cortez raised an eyebrow at her she rolled her eyes "Really Aran, you didn't think you and Dianne were my only friends, did you?"

"It wouldn't have surprised me!" The Rebel Captain retorted in irritation

"Well I suppose I did hand you that one." Professor Elliot remarked before continuing "Don't give me that, Cortez! He wasn't a prisoner on that block you dropped him on, I found him entirely by accident and no one knows who he is here. Not only that, but his brother never put him on the most wanted list. The bounty on his head is not worth the effort for good bounty hunters. Besides, he's been invaluable the last few days."

It was only then that they noticed that Darius was wearing a bloody apron and gloves and holding bandages.

"You have medical training?" Cortez asked

"A little." Darius said "I studied through correspondence on Vaandagard. There wasn't much else to do up there. But I am glad now. I can help people because of it." He looked across at the rows of beds.

"Good, cause we have a casualty for you." Wayan said as he led the young woman over to him. She was hunched over in pain, strands of her dark hair curtaining her face which was pale from pain. She grimaced widely and fought back tears, practically oblivious to the rebels parting for her and Wayan.

"Here, let's take a look at that arm." Darius said gently as he approached her. She looked up at the sound of his voice and then recoiled from him unexpectedly. To her, he just looked too much like the man who'd been chasing her all her life. Sure, at the time she was in, the twins looked completely different. But where, or rather **when** she was from, they didn't. She was uneasy sat down on the nearest table for them to take a look at it. Her anxiety only increased when Darius reached for her sleeve to pull it back.

"I'll be fine!" She exclaimed in panic, "I'll be fine, it's noth-" she was cut off by a surge of pain when he moved her arm, albeit gently. If it was possible, her face lost even more colour as she turned her head and vomited. There wasn't much to clean up, only the little water that she'd still had in her stomach. It still smelled bad though. She muttered an apology which was waved off. When she looked back up at him she saw Darius looking quietly at her wrist. Her gaze slowly moved down to where he was looking and blinked, taken aback a little. Her wrist was swollen and a little red but otherwise normal.

"I'm afraid your arm is broken." Darius told her, snapping her out of her reverie. She gave him a withering look

"That much I'd kind of figured out." She replied tightly

"I'm going to have to set it now-"

"Just do it and _don't_ warn me!" She snapped. Darius blinked in surprise, finding it an unusual request, though he supposed he could see the logic. If he warned her she'd tense up and that would just make it more difficult—and painful—to set. And if she'd had broken limbs before, she would probably know that.

"Baldur," he beckoned, "I'm going to need your help." His aid Baldur came over first set up the x-ray machine. The dark-haired girl eased off her long, heavy trench coat with a wince and bit her lip in pain. Underneath that long over-coat she was wearing a black tank top that looked like it had once been a t-shirt, (though the sleeves had been ripped off at some point) and similarly dark pants. It was also the first time anyone noticed the calf-length brown boots she had on. They looked sturdy, but worn and were definitely a familiar make.

"You're very lucky." Darius said, looking at the X-ray, "It's a clean break. It should heal fairly quickly. Baldur,"

_You have _**no**_ idea…_she thought to herself ruefully, not looking forward to the night ahead.

The aid again nodded, and it was done in a second. Dianne barely made a sound, though she looked like she might throw up again, but she didn't. Baldur splinted it with a piece of wood and bandaged it up deftly. They didn't have anything to make plaster with, it wasn't feasible in skyland to waste water like that.

"Now, I would prescribe rest, some food and water and a good night's sleep. Any questions," He looked at Cortez pointedly, "Can wait until morning. Take this, it'll help you sleep." He handed her a small capsule from a bottle. She took it hesitantly and asked him something in a whisper that was for his ears only. He shook his head sympathetically and replied something that they also couldn't hear and gave her a different cup of pain medication along with a bottle of his own water and a packet that contained a nutrition bar. She nodded, accepted it, then walked across the room to a mat on the floor that was serving as a bed and curled up on it. Once she was seen to the rebels returned their attention to other matters at hand.

"Is there any way that we can help?" Lena asked

"Actually, there is." Baldur piped up. The rebels looked from him to Darius, who looked a little uncomfortable to Professor Elliot for explanation. By way of response she started to roll up her sleeve in jerking motions.

"One of the benefits of this place is the medical technology that it's amassed. Among other things we have the machines to check blood-types so that we can give transfusions without poisoning people." She showed them her arm with the sleeve rolled half-way up her bicep to show them the inside of her elbow. In the crook of her elbow were cotton balls taped to her skin from where she'd had blood drawn. It was then that they glanced around and saw that a few of the bed-ridden patients with IV's hooked up to them had a thick red liquid dripping into the tubes hooked up to them.

"The able-bodied have already been tapped as much as the doctors are comfortable with, particularly given our low supplies and we're running out of several blood types."

"But…isn't blood, you know, _blood_?" Lena asked. Darius shook his head

"No. There's different types, that's why it can be tricky to do transfusions. There's different antibodies in different blood types that make them incompatible to one another sometimes."

"Well," Said Wayan as he stepped forward "I'm O-Neg, universal donor. Where shall I sit?"

"Over there, I thank you." Darius motioned.

"Aye, we'll all donate a pint or two. We brought some supplies ourselves to eat afterwards and we know our blood types." Cortez said

"You do?" Mahad asked

"The Vector has degrees in 5 different fields. One of them is medicine. Guess he just hadn't gotten around to you guys yet." Dahlia told him as she started to roll up her sleeve. Darius motioned for the dark-haired young pilot and his sister to follow.

"Have you ever had a blood test?" Darius asked.

"Well, no," Mahad replied "A few times some doctors came to school and stuff but mom always kept us away from them."

Dahlia and Wayan exchanged wry, amused looks. If the brash pilot had never so much as had a needle…this could be entertaining.

"That would make sense." Cortez said whilst rolling up his own sleeve "She wouldn't want the Sphere to have any DNA to ever link you with her or Marcus."

"So how will we know what type we are?" Lena asked as she perched on the empty bed next to her brother, her head cocked curiously.

"If you're willing its quite simple. I take a small sample of blood and then run it through this machine here. When this type of procedure was first invented it would have taken several days to process it, but this machine was developed several years ago by your friend the Vector and some of the scientists here…"

Wayan winced slightly as Baldur inserted the needle into his arm and began to draw the much-needed blood from his vein. He wasn't squeamish, but also didn't find the red flow fascinating and looked away only to glance at Dahlia.

"You okay?" He asked her in concern.

"I will be if you stop asking me that." She snapped at him. The knuckles on her free hand went white as she clenched it, her mouth in a thin line "I don't remember this hurting this much."

Wayan didn't bother pointing out that it wouldn't hurt if she weren't already tense. A welcome distraction for them came with Mahad's rather loud and comical yelp. Darius just given him his first blood test apparently. The Rebel right-hands exchanged glances and then both chuckled, shaking their heads slightly. It was sometimes a bit of a wait for the blood to be drawn. There were a few minutes of silence before the dark-shinned man broke it again.

"Penny for your thoughts," he remarked. The Blonde looked up at him and blinked, having been snapped out of her own internal monologue.

"What?" She asked "Oh, sorry. Just a little tired, that's all. I didn't sleep very well last night."

"Dreaming about Di Wan again?" her friend asked. She nodded. Wayan was one of her oldest friends, not to mention her flat-mate. He was the brother she'd never had and she trusted him. He was the only one she'd confided the nature of the recurring dreams she'd had sporadically since the Battle of Karzem.

Most of these dreams featured Di Wan in one way or another. Sometimes the bald Guardian was an antagonist, winning the fight they'd engaged in just before her demise and pinning Dahlia to the ground with one foot, raising a glowing fist in preparation for a final blow. In other such nightmares it was Dahlia and not Di Wan who was hanging from the open docking bay. Then in other variations nightmares of her past melded together and Di Wan turned into first her sister and then her mother as she lost her grip and fell into the void that was blockless sky in Skyland.

Dahlia shook her head slightly as though to rid her head of such thoughts with the very motion. She looked over at Wayan as they were unhooked and had cotton pieces pressed over the small pinpricks in the crooks of their elbows and bent them so that their hands were close to the shoulder. They rummaged in their pockets and retrieved a ration-bar to nibble on as they stood to make space for Cortez and Lena. Mahad was still smarting and whining about his first experience with a needle, making the other rebels and a few of the block residents smile a little. Dahlia couldn't help but wonder if he exaggerated his antics to try and bring those smiles to people's faces.

Unfortunately, those smiles did not stay on their faces long. Just after Cortez and Lena had finished donating their blood a strange sound started come from the speakers in the room overhead and then, more disturbingly, from the little radio that perched forgotten on the wall. Everyone in the room paused and looked to the ceiling anxiously. At first it was faint and crackling, but then after a few more moments the notes of classical music became louder and clearer.

"Wagner…" Darius muttered in confusion, identifying the composer of the song. After a few bars of the notable "Valkyrie" piece played through intimidatingly it faded and disappeared to be replaced with an oily voice.

"_Hello, __**Rebels**_." An oily, male voice greeted mockingly over the intercom "_I trust that you are all sitting…comfortably._" There was a creepy little giggle from the speaker before he continued "_And residents of this…charred, forgotten little place. You are in a bit of a predicament. You're trapped. Doesn't matter where, you're trapped well and good alright. You have wounded, we know that. So we're going to be nice to you. We'll leave you alone tonight to deal with your wounded and then in the morning, if you're in a more reasonable mood we'll come and rescue Oxford from these briggands. All we ask for this help is that you surrender up the rebels of the Saint Nazaire. We know they're in there. This is really your only chance I must say. You have until 9 tomorrow morning to decide. Choose well. Oh, I should probably mention this, so silly of me, but if you choose wrong then FAMOUS PROTECTORS OR NO WE WILL BURN THIS STINKIN' PLACE TO THE GROUND!__To-da-loo," _The anonymous announcer ended the connection.

Silence remained across the underground rooms as the rebels and residents alike exchanged glances ranging from uneasy to terrified.

"This...is not good." Mahad said, voicing what they all thought. No one bothered to berate him for pointing out the painfully obvious, for no one else could think to say anything.

**A/N: Alrighty, there we go. Next one will be up relatively soon—it certainly will not take nearly as long as this one did, that I promise you. Oh, and also, before anyone asks, Victoria was not referring to the same 'Dianne' (i.e. FutureLena) that the rebels have so far "met". The explanation for who she was talking about will be in the next chapter, as will a slight twist! **

**Again, please review. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Forgot about this for the last chapter. Ah well. I think it's pretty safe to say it's not mine, considering I'm writing this story on FANfiction and not for an episode!**

**A/N: Well, after the last action-packed chapter we have a very talkative one, though it has a share of drama in it that will hopefully keep you entertained! Please review and give me some feedback. **

**Chapter 8.**

That night was uncomfortable to say the least. Everyone was tense. They would have to take a stand in the morning, but a scout had brought back the news that they were surrounded. Besides, they could use a night's rest before they tried for another fight, and Lena's powers wouldn't work at night. At least, not as _well_. It was likely the same reason that the Sphere wanted to wait until morning. The girl was, however, still their trump card. With Oslo gone she was undeniably the most powerful seijinn in Skyland. She was certainly confident that she could handle anything they threw her way. She shrugged off the suggestion of exelerium with the airy statement that the Guardians wouldn't want it near _them_. Oslo had always been a creepy case and most seijinns would tolerate the stuff anywhere in the area they occupied. Rebels and residents alike rolled their eyes and cast her looks that she didn't seem to notice. Apparently the night really did dim seijinn senses. There was one gaze she couldn't make herself oblivious to though, one that unsettled her.

The young woman who had introduced herself to them as Dianne was huddled in a dark corner, her coat over her like a blanket and pulled up to her chin. Her eyes glared out from the shadows, however, her icy stare locked on Lena unrelentingly. She barely even seemed to blink. Lena tried to ignore it. When she was walking past her, however, the young woman spoke up.

"You haven't told them yet, have you?" she asked, making the girl stop and look down at her.

"What?" she asked, blinking.

"Don't play dumb. I know what you did." The teenager grumbled as she shifted underneath her make-shift blanket, wincing at the movement. The younger girl couldn't help but notice the dark circles etched under her eyes and the pallor of her skin. Her lips had even lost a little color.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about." She said "Are you alrigh—"

"Correction then, I know what you _didn't_ do." Dianne interrupted coldly. Lena froze but quickly tried to assure herself that there was no way that this stranger could possibly know anything about—

"I know what you _didn't_ do when you rescued your mother." The teenager said as though reading the younger girl's mind, her voice hardening even further. Lena took a step back from her, eyes widening a little as she stared at the young woman. How could she know? How could she possibly know? Lena hadn't told _anyone_!

"You're enjoying this too much to tell them, aren't you?" the teenager continued bitterly "Enjoying the whole 'most powerful seijin in skyland' thing? Just gonna wait for them to find out some other way? How d'you think that's going to go?"

As Lena blinked away her shock a sudden idea occurred to her. Her powers had grown to the point where she could, if she put enough effort and concentration into it, work her powers without light. With every intention to use that skill she scowled at the teenager in concentration, focusing on her telepathy. She did not expect what she got.

Instead of the rush of incoming thoughts that she should have gotten when honing in on just one other person's mind she ran into a mental barrier, coming up with nothing. She took another step back, once again reeling with shock. The teenager gave her a half-hearted, tired sneer.

"I wouldn't recommend that." She whispered to her wryly, her eyes narrowing in an expression of condescending menace. "I don't _like_ people messing around in my head. Get off your high-horse you arrogant brat."

"Wh-who are you to talk to me like that?" Lena demanded, indignation finally overriding disbelief.

"Someone who's suffering the consequences of your actions." Dianne replied before sighing and closing her eyes to catch some sleep, thereby ending the conversation. The young seijinn swallowed and looked around nervously to see if anyone had overheard their conversation. No one seemed interested in the pair which made her relax a little. Still, how could this person possibly know unless…

…unless she had encountered Oslo _since_ the Fall of Karzem. An unsettling thought.

888888888888

Dahlia was sitting perched on the winding stairs they had come down to enter the make-shift hospital, looking through the railings at the people below with her energy bow, deactivated, on her lap along with a blaster next to her. If anyone asked, she was a second line of defense should anyone get past the guards immediately at the entrance. In reality she just hated the place and couldn't wait to get off the block and was sick of people asking her if she was "okay". It wasn't as if she was going to be able to sleep here. The accents reminded her of Di Wan and she didn't want to dream about killing her again. Why this particular death should affect her so, she had no idea. She was a fighter, a rebel in a war. She had seen people die before. She'd been seeing people die since she was a child right here on Oxford, but for some reason the Guardian kept haunting her; perhaps it was her attempt and subsequent failure to save her that had caused such a haunting. She could vividly remember the genuine fear in the woman's voice and face as she hung from that panel.

"So, how are you holding up?" Mahad asked, snapping her out of her thoughts as he sauntered up the steps casually. In spite of his air of arrogance, however, his concern was evident. Dahlia shifted over to give him some more room on the stair to sit next to her. He watched her with that _look_ in his eye that he got sometimes; it was similar to the one he had given her when they had been trapped on the iceberg. She forced a small smile onto her face for a moment. He didn't believe it and she instead shook her head.

"I'll be fine." She told him quietly.

"So you admit that you're not great now." he said, pouncing on her words. "Want to talk about it?"

"Not really." She said.

"Do you _need _to talk about it?" Mahad pressed. Dahlia huffed out a sort of snort and rolled her eyes.

"Some might say so." She said. For a minute or two they said nothing and sat there, elbows balancing on their knees, idly twiddling their fingers as they watched the people below. At one point Victoria walked by and saw them up there. She stared for a few moments at Dahlia in particular and then went to talk with Darius. Mahad frowned a little and leaned in toward Dahlia without looking away from the rifle-carrying woman at first

"Do you _know_ her?" He asked "'Cause she seems to know you. And she definitely knows Cortez!"

"She wasn't in the rebellion, if that's what you're asking. Not the way we are, anyway." She told him. She paused and looked down at her hands, her eyes distant and thoughtful when she continued "She was a friend of my mother's."

Mahad looked at her again, his gaze sincere.

"You never talk about your family." He remarked

"Because I don't have one. Not like you, with Lena and your mother." She said, looking over to where the young seijinn was now chatting with someone before remarking "I used to though. I used to have a family just like yours. Well, not exactly. My sister was older, but I _had_ a sister once. And a mother. I had a father too but he died when I was so young that I don't even remember him."

"What were they like?" Mahad asked tentatively. For once he was going out of his way _not _to make her feel uncomfortable. He jibed her flirtatiously on a regular basis, trying to catch her off guard, but this was different. This was a sensitive area as he well knew from his and Lena's search for their mother. The blonde glanced over at him and the corners of her mouth twitched again in the half-hearted imitation of a smile.

"They were my family. My mum and my brave, big sister. I was, what, maybe six? They could do no wrong. They knew everything." She told him nostalgically. Mahad noted that she used 'mum' rather than 'mom', the first hint he'd ever seen of her being from this anglicised block. He didn't say anything, sensing that she needed to get this off her chest and had kept it bottled up for far too long. She took a moment but when she continued her voice was strong and devoid of even a hint of tears.

"Victoria and my mother were colleagues, friends. Professors Victoria and Dianne. They worked with the Vector sometimes, too. My mother lectured on physics and on her own time specialized in light and energy."

"I'll bet that made her…appealing." Mahad commented. Dahlia snorted

"You mean with the Sphere? Yeah, it did. She was good with seijinn stuff even though she wasn't one. It was great for my sister, though."

"Your sister?"

"Wanda. She was a seijinn. Mum wasn't but she said that my dad had a small amount of power though it wasn't even powerful enough to qualify for guardian school. It just gave him an edge in whatever sport he played. Wanda wasn't like that though."

"She was powerful?" Mahad asked. Dahlia nodded

"Until I met Lena," she paused, her expression darkening as memories of certain other seijinns surfaced as well "And Oslo and Di Wan, she was the most powerful seijinn I'd known. At least I thought so. But then again, she _was_ my big sister and I worshipped her so she might not have been the superhero that I remember."

Mahad nodded, listening attentively. She was pleasantly surprised. She always was when Mahad showed his less arrogant side.

"What happened?" he asked carefully. Dahlia stared straight ahead as she answered in that same decidedly dry-eyed, neutral tone.

"There was a raid. Things got ugly _fast_. One minute my sister and I are playing outside, the next…the next my life is changed forever. I'm sure you can relate,"

"You bet!" Mahad exclaimed, remembering his own experience with such a thing; the day he and Lena had discovered that their mother was a seijinn, the same day that he and his sister had begun their lives as fugitives from the Sphere. He focused his attention away from memory lane and back to his friend when she resumed her story. He could practically see the scene play out as she told it to him.

"My sister grabs my hand and starts pulling me towards our house, but it went up in flames before we could even get through the gate to our front yard. At some point our mother got there. She picked me up, grabbed my sister's hand and just _ran, _dragging us along with her. We went to one of the back entrances to the University, it was supposed to be the most secure building but it wasn't. There were people firing guns everywhere. I don't know what happened, it was so chaotic and loud and…terrifying. People were running everywhere like frightened sheep. My mother tripped and we got caught up in the stampede. My sister was separated from us. I remember mum screaming for her…but then she saw something. She stopped dead and started pushing against the crowd until we got into some room, not this one I'm not sure it was even build at that point. My mother knew so many secret nooks and passages…

"I didn't realize until I was older and looking back at this, but she was running from someone. For good reason, too. We got to the spot my mother had always told us to find if there was trouble, our emergency meeting place. Mum was holding me so…._tightly_ as she looked for Wanda... Then she stopped dead again. She—she turned around and started running again and I could _see_ the man with the gun over her shoulder. The blonde frowned slightly and narrowed her eyes, her gaze distant as she concentrated on the memories she'd skirted around for years "No, that's not right. I never saw more than a shadow, really. I saw the blast. Next thing I know I'm on the ground with my mother on top of me. I told her she was crushing me but she didn't do anything or say anything so I wriggled my way out. I knocked her glasses across the floor when I did—they'd fallen off her face. Her eyes were open…staring…there was this…when it happened I thought it was a hole in her back and I wasn't far off from what I know now. I kept shaking her and she didn't say anything. "

Mahad watched as his friend's distant look in her eyes turned distinctly haunted. She shook her head a little and looked at him

"I was lucky." She said "Cortez found me before the Sphere could get to me. Wanda wasn't so lucky, though. During the firefight I saw her across the courtyard with a Guardian. He attacked us. Cortez and I barely managed to get out. But we did get out. He brought me to Peurto Angel and I haven't looked back since." She finished in a determinedly matter-of-fact manner.

"Did you ever find your sister?" Mahad asked after a pause. Dahlia shook her head

"No." she said. "I looked. For years. When I was about Lena's age I tried to sneak into the Guardian Academy to see if they'd carted her off there. Nearly got myself captured. By my mid-teens I accepted that she was gone and that even if she were still alive we'd never recognise each other even if we did meet, so I gave up. "

"Gave up?" Mahad asked with mild incredulity. 'Giving up' was not something that the Dahlia he knew was big on.

"It was driving me crazy, Mahad! When I got into my teens I started to obsess about it. By the time I gave it up I was barely sleeping, I just kept thinking about her. Back then when the Sphere took someone, they kept them."

"I had no idea…" the pilot said

"Why should you?" she inquired candidly, not accusingly. "It's all ancient history now. This place just brings back memories, is all."

"Dahlia, I…"

"Mahad, it's _okay._" She emphasized "That was years ago. I'm not down there because I don't want Cortez or Wayan trying to baby me. I'd also rather not get into a heart-to-heart with Professor Elliot."

"Why?" Mahad asked

"Because she keeps trying to corner me and I'd rather keep the past behind me, no don't _get up_!" Dahlia hissed at him as he started to do just that. She reached up and yanked him back down beside her. He looked alarmed at first and then started to smirk.

"Wipe that look off your face, Mahad. If it looks like I'm talking to you she won't come over here." She grumbled at him. In response the young pilot cocked an eyebrow at her and leaned back on one of the stairs with his elbow, his hand cupping one side of his chin as he gave her what he undoubtedly thought was an alluring or flirtatious look. He waggled his eyebrows, his bright blue eyes flashing. Dahlia rolled her eyes and put her hand on his face and shoved gently. He let out a small exclamation that was part laugh and shoved her arm in retaliation. Both of them laughed. The blonde snorted and shook her head, muttering something about him acting like a child. Mahad on the other hand felt a little lighter; she was clearly feeling a little better after their antics, as he'd known she would.

Cortez watched the pair from his chair by the wall and smiled slightly, shaking his head with an indulgent smile threatening to break his gruff expression. He glanced around the room to take tally of his other crew members. Wayan was chatting genially with one of the residents and looked to be getting along quite well. That was no surprise; the man was one of the most likeable people Cortez had ever met. It was one of his many invaluable attributes. Lena had settled down and was talking to Darius and Mahad and Dahlia were alright. There had been no word from Cheng and Kale yet, that worried him. A voice at his elbow drew him out of his worry for his ward.

"Catch," Victoria drawled as she tossed him something. He caught it reflexively and looked down in surprise to see half a lime in his hand. He blinked at it.

"In the olden days, back when Skyland wasn't in the sky, this place was part of a larger block called a country."

"Aye." The Captain replied, "England."

"Correct," the Professor said, praising him "Way, way back about, oh, five-hundred years ago, the British navy were often called 'Limies' because they stocked so many limes. It provided Vitamin C and helped prevent scurvy."

"And how exactly did you get these things?" Cortez asked. In response Victoria sank her teeth into the pale green inner flesh and slurped up the juices of the fruit loudly, making him shudder. In their younger days a mutual friend of theirs had given him a piece of the fruit without warning him about the extremely tart, sharp taste. At the time he, his brother and Marcus had all been left spluttering and coughing whilst the girls, all of whom were accustomed to the fruit either through the Guardian academy (in Mila's case) or the University Dean's private stash.

The professor chuckled at receiving the response from him that she had been seeking and tossed her head to get a shock of prematurely silvering black hair out of her eyes. She tossed her half of the lime in the air and then caught it again and put it back to her mouth for another slurp. Cortez narrowed his eyes a little at her.

"You get it from the Sphere, don't you?" he asked.

"A former student works in the Citrus Orchards, yes." She reluctantly admitted. Cortez snorted and tossed his half of the lime over his shoulder.

"Unbelievable." He grumbled as she caught the other half of the lime.

"If you don't want it someone else can have it," she said aloofly as she started to walk off around the corner. Cortez followed her into the hallway.

"Ye still take Sphere students, don't ye?" he called after her. The professor stopped and slowly turned around, crossing her arms over her chest again tightly, challengingly.

"What of it?" she snapped. Cortez scoffed in response and she ground her teeth "How exactly would you propose we run this place? The only way we stay neutral is by cutting deals with the Sphere!"

"Áye, 'cause that worked so very well for ye're friends over at Ning Xia," The Captain snorted disdainfully. This time it was Victoria's eyes were the ones to narrow.

"So you would rather that there were no schools? No universities? We accept everyone and anyone that is bright enough to pass our entrance exams. And the Officials' brats bring in enough cash to finance the poor lads and lasses who aren't from Sphere-controlled zones or who are from poor areas!"

"Ye have Sphere Dignitaries' kids here? _Now_?" Cortez demanded, getting to his feet

"Yes, and I'm not telling you who they are. There will be no human shields on my watch!"

Their voices had risen

"Excuse me? Ye think that I would—I'm not the Sphere!" the Captain spluttered, a vein popping out one side of his neck in his anger. Victoria wondered how it hadn't already caused him problems. Perhaps the Vector was a better part-time physician than she had given him credit for.

"Well sometimes you don't always look that different from where people like me stand." She said

"I beg ye're pardon?" Cortez snarled, advancing on her. His voice rose with every sentence that he uttered in the tirade that followed.

"We are not the ones who _destroy_ villages. We are not the ones who pick on innocent people and turn them into _hostages_. We don't _enslave_ people! We don't _steal_ hard-working people's water from the mouths of their families! We don't rip children from their homes and turn them into weapons _using a special school_! _We are not the Sphere and we are the ONLY chance you've got against them!_" By the time he finished the captain was roaring in her face. Victoria barely flinched and gave him a mulish look. For a few seconds neither said anything as he caught his breath. His face was (figuratively speaking)almost as red as his hair. Surprising how he could run a mile without looking like that yet how quickly it happened when he was angry. This time it was he who turned around and Victoria who called after him.

"You really don't see it, do you?" she asked, halting his steps. Her arms were still crossed and her chin tilting back angrily, the anger barely contained in her firmly controlled tone "You've _never _taken a child from her home and trained her to be a weapon against your enemies? You can't think of a single example where you've taken someone from all they've ever known and taught them to fight for you? I can think of two that you've trained so very well! They're invaluable to your cause, aren't they?"

This was another insult Cortez would not bear. He whipped around, his ponytail flaring with him in a rather dramatic way.

"Oh come on! Mahad and Lena came to _us_! They had no other—"

"I'm not talking about Mila's children!" Victoria cut across him harshly, her stare hard and cold. The expression on Cortez's face froze and then slowly fell as she continued

"How _is_ Lee and Mae-Lin's little boy? Oh, I know he was born there and his parents' were hardly your fault but he's been kept nice and cozy? Out of any Sphere attention? I'm assuming he's been kept under tight wraps and not put near anything dangerous. So that's why he's the youngest person on the Sphere's top wanted list! Well I can see your strategy is proving to be perfectly sound!"

Each word cut the captain like a lash. It was a blow below the belt and she knew it. She seemed to sense that she might have gone a little overboard and softened. Slightly.

"No, to be fair, that is not the best example. But there is a very good one. There is a girl who you took out of her home and away from the people who loved her!"

"That's not fair either! There wasn't anyone left here—"

"_I am her __**godmother**__, Cortez_!" Victoria suddenly bellowed, her eyes flashing with both fury and the slightest hint of tears "I was her legal guardian!"

"You didn't exactly fight for her." Cortez said coldly

"I didn't think I'd have to."

"Why didn't you come to our block, or contact us?" he demanded

"Perhaps it had to do with the radio-silence that you shrouded yourself in right after the Fall of the Rebellion?" she asked

"We did _not_ _**fall—**__"_

"Would you prefer 'took an extended vacation'?" Victoria quipped.

"That radio silence was necessary to avoid everyone being rounded up and arrested, it was so that we could find a new base and keep it secret! It did not last that long! We were re-grouping!" he snapped

"Three _years_." Victoria snapped back

"And you still didn't look for her? After that, you didn't bother to ask?" Cortez inquired. The Professor sighed and made her way over to a stool and sat down on it, her elbows resting on her knees limply.

"It was three years later." She said by way of explanation "And I did ask. I contacted the Vector to catch up and he mentioned that she was on his block and settled in. She was doing well in her classes, had friends there, was happy…how could I uproot her again?"

The Captain blinked at this. He came over and sat down next to the professor

"You still didn't have to be a stranger." He said to her. His tone wasn't quite gentle, but neither was it hostile. It was more…conversational. "So, why were you?"

Victoria shook her head and sighed.

"I don't know." She admitted quietly. She shrugged "Doesn't matter now. Dahlia has grown up into a fine young woman. Just know that you're lucky to have her."

"I do." Cortez assured her.

"Good," she replied. She got to her feet and headed back for the infirmary room. The captain followed suit. Neither of them made any move to mention the rest of Dahlia's family. Their matters were closed even if they hadn't been avenged yet; they were casualties of the Sphere. They re-entered the infirmary-room to see Dahlia get to her feet and stretch. Mahad said something and she punched him in the arm. He over-dramatized it in his characteristic way and she walked down the stairs with a wry grin tugging at the corner of her mouth. Her step was lighter and she was visibly less tense. Cortez felt a little relieved to see it. Apparently the young pilot was good for more than just flying planes, fighting the Sphere and getting on the captain's nerves.

Dahlia herself would fully admit that she did feel better after talking to Mahad. It had surprised her, how much better she felt after getting all that bottled up stuff about her messed-up childhood had helped her feel better about being stuck on the god-forsaken block of her nightmares. When he wasn't trying to show off the young pilot could be incredibly charming. Besides, his antics also cheered her sometimes as well. She was almost smiling when she approached Darius and asked him how everything was going.

"Oh, splendidly!" he exclaimed with cheer. "I've just about finished running Mahad and Lena's blood."

"Anything interesting?" she asked conversationally

"Well, I suppose. Nothing I didn't expect, though. Our pilot friend might just save the life of one of my patients but I don't think that I'll be able to use Lena's."

"Why not?" the blonde asked, tilting her head a little in curiosity as she came around to look at the contraption he had. Darius typed in a few commands and some visuals came up on the screen. There was a file with Lena's name on it that was sparsely typed with footnotes that he had made recently. He typed in something else on his computer that brought up another image, this one of magnified red blood cells. Amongst the stream of ordinary red ovals were several that seemed to spark and ripple with blue and white waves.

"See these?" he asked, pointing to the strange sparking red ovals. Dahlia nodded and he continued to explain "Most seijinns have similar cells like that, but Lena has a few too many. I'm not an expert, but her blood might do more harm than good to a non-seijinn. See, seijinns can take from non-seijins but they can't donate."

"Then couldn't she donate to another seijinn?"

"Well, that's another problem. Her blood type is also very unusual. It's AB negative. Well, again, not that unexpected. A lot of seijinns are in the negative groups for some reason. We're still not sure why. Anyway, only a small portion of the population, seijinn or no, have that particular blood-type. Again, she can take from pretty much any type with the 'negative' antibodies, but she can only give to other AB negatives. It's simply too unusual a combination, unfortunately. But, like I said, Mahad's will help."

"What type is he?" Dahlia asked, feeling she might as well carry through the inquiry to its end.

"Oh, A negative." Darius said, though neither was particularly interested anymore. The blonde rebel fidgeted in place in a bored manner. Like many of the rebels, she wasn't fond of inactivity. Darius seemed to sense this and glanced around the area for something for her to do. He found something and bent down to pick out a bag of a thick, colorless liquid of some kind and turned to the rebel. He showed her briefly how to replace an IV bag, glad that—much like the improved blood-typing machine—the design was fairly simple for someone with little training to do in a pinch. Besides, the young woman was a quick learner.

"Now, Dahlia, would you do me a favor?" he asked her after he was satisfied that she knew how to replace an IV bag.

"Sure," she said with a shrug. "What d'you need?"

"Would you mind replacing the medications on a few of the drips?" he inquired, handing her three. Each had a sticker with a different color on it. He pointed to the bag on the left with a red sticker, "This one, here, with the red, is for Mr. Darnley across the hallway, the yellow is for Mr. Smith next to him and the blue is for Miss Doe at the end. Her bed has curtains around it."

"Red for Darnley, yellow for Smith and blue for Doe. Got it." The rebel rattled off with a nod and a smile to show that she understood and was glad for something to do.

She enjoyed the task. The first man that she assisted was a middle-aged man with a young child curled up next to him on his bed and one of the women they had met outside on the chair next to them. She approached carefully, reluctant to intrude on the obvious family moment when the woman saw her and smiled, taking the medication from her politely and hooking it up. They exchanged introductions and chatted with her a little. The young boy they had with them apparently was interested in archery and his mother had been telling him of the blonde's excellent shot. She gave him a few tips before moving on to the next patient who was a rather genial old man whose mind was clearly in much better shape than his battered body. He had not been injured by the thugs, but rather by the Sphere as he didn't hesitate to tell her, praising her for her part in the rebellion she was so clearly a part of by the insignia on her clothes.

"…If it weren't for our charming Jane over there you would 'ave bin helpin' them shine up me 'eadstone!" he said in a broad accent, rounding off the tale of his attack by a Guardian. "She came charging out and attacked them on my behalf! First indication we'd had that she was a seijinn. At least, first that I'd seen. But then again, I wasn't the one who thought they knew her…"

"You didn't know she was a seijinn?" Dahlia asked him with a slight frown of confusion.

"Well, it's not as if she were goin' to tell us! She were a right sight when we found 'er on some li'le scrap of a block. Almost ev'ry bone in 'er body broken according to our doctors and a nasty 'ead wound to boot. No idea 'ow long she'd been out there, should'a bin dead! Didn't know if she were goin' to wake up, but she did. Problem were that she hadn'ta clue who she was, eh? Brave girl though, tore out some of 'er stitches comin' to me aid! Set 'er righ' back accordin' to the doctor so you see that you 'elp 'er, righ my girl?" he finished off his rant with the question, shaking a knarled finger at her in well-meaning bossiness. The blonde had to supress a chuckle as she assured him that they would all do their best for everyone on the block as she headed over to one of the curtained-off beds.

Whoever had organized this, whether Darius or not, had been clever using stickers to make sure there was no potentially dangerous mix-up. There was a bright blue sash with a number tied to the railings holding the curtains around the bed so that she knew this was the right bed even without Darius and the old man's direction. She took hold of the faded, yellowed curtain and pulled it back gingerly with a screech of metal rings on the metal rod. When she saw the occupant sleeping in the bed her breath hitched in her throat and her face fell, her mouth dropping open slowly as she stared in shock.

Lying on the bed was the alarmingly small form of a woman, who, if it weren't for the bleeping machine beside her, might have been mistaken for a corpse. The patients' gown she wore seemed to swallow her thin frame and her skin was dry and marked with scaly red patches and bandages. Her right arm was also wound with long strips of white cloth and splinted with a piece of wood and her left had the IV attached to it. Dahlia, however, did not pay much attention to the litany of obvious injuries. Her eye was drawn to the woman's face. Her lips were dry and cracked but as colorless as ever, her cheeks a little sunken. She lacked the red eye-shadow that had been customary when the woman had been in the Rebels' acquaintance. The blonde stubble that had grown over her scalp had partially concealed the red tattoo, but was not entirely successful. Even partially obscured it was unmistakable…and Dahlia was not likely to forget that face.

"Cortez…!" she called, turning her head slightly in the direction of the captain but not looking away from the patient. The Captain heard the note of urgency in her tone and looked up sharply from his conversation with Victoria. Wayan, Mahad and Lena also looked over. They saw the blonde standing at one of the curtained-off beds with one hand clutching said curtain as she stared at the occupant. She finally tore her gaze away from them and looked around to meet Cortez's eye.

"You might want to see this." She said. He hurried over to her side, exchanging a glance with her before looking down at the unconscious patient hooked up to the monitor.

"Great Skyland!" he exclaimed.

"What is it?" Mahad asked as he jogged over hopping to one side for a few jumps to avoid stepping on someone sitting on the floor. When he bounded over he followed their gaze before his jaw dropped dramatically.

"Is that…" he trailed off, not needing to finish voicing the question. They all knew the answer.

"It" was Di Wan.

**A/N: Please review. **


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Alrighty then, so sorry for the long wait. School was hectic and crazy and this also had a couple of scenes that I read over and then completely changed and re-wrote at least twice. Unfortunately, I haven't given it as good a technical edit/read-over as I would have liked, I was more focused on the story revisions. So, I apologise in advance for any typos.  
>Please review, though. I would love to hear what you have to say; what you like, what you're not clear on, what you don't really like, that kind of thing... Just to let me know if you're reading.<p>

Disclaimer: It's established that Skyland is not mine. This particular story is. Let's get on with it.

**Chapter 9**

**The Future**

The escaped prisoner ran for all that she was worth until she came to the edge of the block. There she skidded to a halt with an exclamation, grabbing the decrepit sign naming the location to stop herself from going over the side. Her fingers dug into the engraving of the 'P' on the faded "_Puerto Angel"_ that she pointedly did not read, though she knew what it said. She wondered somewhere in the back of her mind how many homes the Sphere would see fit to take from her in her lifetime. She had more pressing concerns though as Oslo sauntered up to her flanked by the masked soldiers colloquially dubbed 'zombies' as well as a pair of the latest model of superbrigs. She stiffened when he said her name but didn't turn around and didn't lower the hood on the cloak she wore.

"Come now," he purred "Don't you _want_ to see your daughter again?"

"I'll never help you find her! I'll do whatever it takes to protect my family!"

"Surely you see that she would be safer with me. I would protect her, help her,"

"You would control her, drain her and cage her! She'll never submit to you! And I will die before I let you use me to get to her!" With that, the hooded woman threw three black pebbles at him with all her might. When they hit the ground at Oslo's feet they exploded in a cloud of black gas. The dictator reeled back and waved at the substance erratically. The prisoner narrowed her eyes in a humourless smirk before spreading her arms and leaning back. Oslo let out a wordless exclamation of denial as she tipped over the edge of the block and disappeared from sight.

By the time he managed to stumble over to the edge and look down all he could see was the billowing edges of her cloak getting less distinct as she fell. He stood there for several seconds, panting. Thanks to the exelerium he had inhaled he wouldn't be able to activate his powers for several minutes and his seijinn senses were clouded. That had been his best bargaining tool! Now he would have to find some other way to coerce her brat's cooperation!

The dictator slammed his palm down on the wood of the old sign in anger. The wood was so worn down that the stake burying it into the ground keeled over to the sign. As he whipped around he stomped over the carved message that had once declared the block to be the now infamous '_Peurto Angel'. _

"We're moving out," he growled to his subordinates as he turned on his heel and stomped off towards his ship "I suppose we'll just have to catch a bird with force instead of bargaining."

**Year 2252**

"How long has she been here?" Cortez asked, rounding on Victoria and pointing at the unconscious Di Wan.

"She was on a Floater." The woman said coolly, referring to the small sections of block that occasionally had a tendency to do just that in Skyland: float. Well, drift might be a better description. They were what had originally gotten the Vector onto his theory of "block drifting" that he'd had Mahad and Lena testing on the occasion that led them to meet Darius. This explanation, however, was not enough to satisfy Cortez. He continued to scowl at Victoria who rolled her eyes. She took a long, deep breath and let it out in a drawn-out puff as she continued.

"Our janitor found her on one of his supply runs to the Citrus Orchards, lying on a floater that wasn't quite big enough for her, her arms and legs hanging off it. Our Janitor and his assistant called home for help and I and some of our students went out on some of the old Speeder models we have here managed to get her onto a sort of hammock between us. It was tricky, the floater was a low one, it nearly ran underneath Oxford. When we brought her back here we weren't quite sure how she was still alive. She was obviously severely dehydrated, had cracked a few vertebrates, broken ribs, broken femur, one broken arm and a dislocated shoulder, and she was covered in sun burns."

"Seijinns don't _get_ sunburns." Lena said matter-of-factly as she walked over. Victoria turned and raised both eyebrows to an impressive height. Mahad quickly did a little side shuffle so that he was ever so slightly between the Professor and his sister

"She's right! They don't!" He said quickly "Mom was always making a show of putting sunscreen on Squirt over here so no one would wonder why she never got more than a little tan."

"I am aware of normal seijinn reaction to Ultra Violet radiation," Victoria informed them in a cold drawl "However, I am surprised that one so very _powerful_ and _knowledgeable_ on such matters as your sister here,"(Lena had the decency to turn bright red at his) "is not aware that when there are other such matters for Seijinn powers to be occupied with, such as massive internal injury it ceases to put effort into protecting the skin. It might be something you want to know for future reference, young lady. May I continue?"

"Yes," Lena muttered grudgingly, staring determinedly at her boots. It was the second time in a day she had been embarrassed, except that unlike with the creepy teenager they'd found, this time had been public. The professor seemed satisfied and continued,

"Unsurprisingly, she was in a coma for a couple of weeks. When she did wake up she had no idea who she was, but we had expected that with the extent of trauma her body had taken. We cared for her. She was very pleasant and very eager to learn. She's healing fairly quickly, that was what made me wonder if she was Seijinn, though she didn't know whether or not she was one."

"A likely story," Mahad muttered, thinking of all the encounters he had suffered personally with the woman. Victoria shot him a withering look and he rolled his eyes.

"She figured it when we were attacked. I'm afraid she hurt herself trying to defend us, she's bleeding internally again."

Cortez gave a short "humph"ing sound and Darius looked at him with an expression that made no one question his individuality from his brother; no one who knew Oslo would ever have guessed that someone related to him could look so worried and…_caring_.

"They may not be able to save her this time." He said emphatically, desperate to coax some sympathy and concern out from the rebels for this patient.

"Well that's just too bad." Cortez snapped. He glanced over at Dahlia, who was still looking at the unconscious Sphere agent. His face softened momentarily before he cleared his throat and resumed his typical demeanour as he barked out orders "Wayan, Dahlia, let's go. We have to figure out some kind of strategy before the morning."

The blonde paused, however, her eyes narrowing slightly as she registered something that Darius had said and turning slightly towards him, ripping her gaze away from the unconscious woman.

"What do you mean, you might not be able to save her this time?" she asked him. The others blinked slightly, they hadn't expected the question from Dahlia and indeed, she had not expected it herself. Still, it was there now. Darius didn't seem particularly surprised, but was curious about why the others were an answered her in his usual, quiet way.

"Well, again it comes down to blood, I'm afraid. We've used up all of the B-Negative blood.." He told them. Dahlia stared at him and then took a step back, her expression silently eloquent with _'are you kidding me?' _stamped all over it. She raised her eyebrows and closed her eyes with a sigh, massaging her forehead with one hand whilst the other went to her hip. When she looked up again she glanced at Victoria and then Darius.

"No, you haven't." the blonde rebel told them. The hand at her temples moved to point to herself as she elaborated "You just got two pints a couple hours ago. _I'm_ B-Negative. Hook me up later if what you've got isn't enough."

"Are-are you certain? This could save her life!" Darius exclaimed, clearly very happy about the turn of events.

"That's kind of the point, don't you think?" Dahlia asked as she started to head back to the hallway in the direction that Cortez had indicated. While still heading towards their corner she turned around, continuing to back up but spread her arms. "You know where to find me, after all. Cortez, I believe you wanted to discuss plans?"

The captain nodded and followed her without a word, Wayan and Mahad at his heels.

888888888888

Everyone knew when it was morning even if they couldn't see the sunrise. The rebels didn't wait for the Sphere to make another goading announcement and split up to slip outside from different locations along with the still-fit Oxford inhabitants so as not to give away the location of the hideout for the children and infirm. Lena was still waiting inside, however, along with Mahad. There was little point in her being in the line of non-seijinn fire when the sun wasn't fueling her powers, at least in Cortez's opinion. She had been irritated when he'd told her tome out in the 'second wave' but had kept her mouth shut. She was starting to get the impression that people were becoming a little annoyed with her and she should therefore, perhaps, try to get on their good side again. Besides, what that strange girl had said had made her a little uncomfortable.

"Can we leave now?" she asked Mahad in a whisper.

"We have to wait for the signal, Squirt." Her brother reminded her.

"Since when do you do that?"

"Since I don't have the hyperion anymore and it's not as much fun to ditch a radio as it is to turn it off and throw some aerials." He said as he watched the door pointlessly.

"Sure it isn't just to get Dahlia to think you're growing up?" Lena asked with raised eyebrows and a knowing smirk. Mahad looked around at her sharply

"_What_? N-no!" He spluttered, blushing slightly as he looked at her, back to the door and then back at his sister uncomfortably as she giggled at his reaction.

"Mahad and Dahlia, sittin' in a tree—" the young girl began in a sing-song whisper

"Shut up!" her brother hissed, his tone half angry, half pleading. He was spared from any further taunting from his sibling by the sound of Cortez's voice telling the second wave to come out. Everyone else on the stairs looked to the young Farrell siblings.

"Alright everyone, let's do this!" he said, leading them up through the door. The last person on their way out closing it behind them, the sound echoing slightly in the chamber below.

888888

Dianne jerked awake with a gasp as the door closed, grimacing widely at the pain this motion caused in her arm, the blood that had returned to her face during her rest draining again. Baldur saw the movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see her hunching over arm again and went to help her. As soon as he knelt down, however, she warded him off with her good hand in a sharp gesture. It was this gesture that first took the man aback, but it was not what made him stare.

The sudden movement into a sitting position had made the coat slide from around the young woman's chin to somewhere in her lap, baring her arms and shoulders. The strange collar she had put on after taking off from the Saint Nazaire covered the area from her chin to around where her tank-top went, but the arms were enough. She grabbed him by his collar before he could say anything and pulled him in close to her in the shadows.

"Not a word." Dianne hissed, her eyes boring into his aggressively. He swallowed and nodded. She released him and pulled her coat around her as she stood up with another wince. The kafuffle going on around them was enough that no one else had noticed what Baldur had seen and the young woman was able to get one arm into a sleeve and then somehow drape the other side of the coat over herself semi-sufficiently. Without another word she followed the rebels up the stairs swiftly and slipped out the exit, leaving Baldur a little unnerved.

Once out of the basement her plan of action was simple and largely subconscious; she wanted _light_. She wanted the _Sun_. She wanted a _perch_. Hence, a rooftop was the only option for her. It was more coincidental than anything else that it gave her a view of what was going on. It put her in the path of the ships, sure, but the Sphere and Thug ships alike were more interested in other things at the moment, especially if she lay there for a bit and played dead. For a bit. That would change quickly.

888888

"_Mahad," _Wayan said over the radio when they were in the process of getting everyone who was taking a stand out of the trap doors. The young man hauled someone out of the tricky ladder before grabbing clicking the button, his sister watching as he did so.

"Yeah?" he asked

"_Forget about stealth. We're surrounded. They know which building you and Lena are in and they've got their ships weapons trained on it." _The fellow rebel replied. Mahad and Lena exchanged glances and then looked around at the men and women who had come out to fight for their home and/or school. His mouth set in a grim line as he brought the communication device back up to his mouth.

"We're coming out." He said. The residents looked at him with slack jaws and then seemed to deflate in defeat. However, when one of them started to get up Mahad pulled her back down by her sleeve.

"Not you," he said, still whispering. "They know that _me and Lena—_"

"Lena and I," interrupted what was clearly an English student. The pilot ignored him

"—are here. That doesn't mean they know about you. Continue with the plan but don't take stupid chances."

Lena raised her eyebrows at this statement, one so atypical of her brother's attitude. Then again, taking chances that put _you_ in danger was one thing. Putting people who counted on you in such a position was another. The young seijinn mulled this over in her mind as she and her brother stood and walked out the door, down the open hallway and then outside quietly. They emerged onto the large, open street where this fight was going to be.

Someone had anticipated the rebels it seemed. They'd at least cornered Cortez, Wayan and Dahlia, all three of whom were out in the open. Wayan and Dahlia appeared to have surrendered their weapons and it wasn't difficult to guess why; their captain was several feet off the ground, restrained by ropes of blue seijinn energy whilst his two lieutenants were kneeling on the ground with blasters to their heads. Lena could practically feel her brother tense at this sight. She was angry too, but both of them also noticed something else; the others being held at weapon-point were at the mercy of what looked to be a mixture of people in Sphere uniform and the _thugs_.

What really seemed to get Mahad's goat, however, was the identity of the two seijinns in the middle imprisoning his friends.

"Aw Man, are you _kidding_ me?" he half-groaned-half-yelled when he saw two familiar faces standing pompously with their captives floating above them and sneers on their faces. The pilot threw his hands up in the air in exasperation "Okay, it's over. Our reputations are completely shot. There is no way I can ever look Lucretia in the eye after it gets out that we were cornered by these losers _twice_!"

The Guardian called Artemis had changed very little apart from his uniform. He still had the same beady eyes and greasy black hair, thought this time his clothing was official looking, complete with insignia and everything.

"Yes, we did get your Captain rather tied up twice in a row, didn't we?" The guardian sneered. Same whiny voice too, even when he was pleased with himself. His partner stepped forward at this, her gait slow, measured and smug. Her attitude hadn't changed either, though her appearance had. Jeloah seemed to have finally stepped into Di Wan's shoes following her apparent death, for she now sported a shaved head and what was clearly a new tattoo. She also sported the same black attire of her predecessor.

"So, I see we have the pleasure of meeting again." She said with a sickly pretense at manners. She practically licked her lips.

"Why are you so happy? Last time you guys tried to catch us you lost. Badly." The pilot reminded them.

"Ooh, but that was before. This is now." The guardian chuckled. When Lena stepped forward with a snarl on her face the formerly blonde seijinn raised a hand warningly and made a tutting sound at her, simultaneously tightening the 'ropes' on Cortez. The captain's involuntary grunt made the girl hesitate long enough for the other seijinn to make a shoving motion that sent the captain hurtling through the air until he dangled over the edge of the block. Jeloah smiled in a wry, cruel way.

"Come any closer Lena and I might just be forced to hang him—aaaeeiihh!" The Guardian's threat was cut off partway through by a well-timed blast on Lena's part which sent her flying as the young girl spun to the side and thrust her arms out. Jeloah having lost concentration by the blow, Cortez plummeted about 2 feet before landing with a grunt onto the shimmering platform of light that Lena had created. Said platform sped back over the block and disappeared so that the Captain could land in a crouched kneeling position. As Lena did this her brother bodily tackled the man holding a gun to Dahlia's head at such an angle that he also shoved the man threatening Wayan off balance enough for the latter rebel to whip around and land his own disarming blow on his attacker.

"I don't think so!" Lena shouted at the Guardians. It was like a signal to everyone to start skirmishing, it certainly was what prompted the remaining Oxford volunteers to jump out and start firing their weapons.

The next few minute were utter chaos. Lena took on three seijins—two guardians and one of the bandits who seemed to have some ability. Dahlia and Mahad found themselves back to back quite by surprise, each glancing over jerkily in a double take as they danced in a tight circle looking for a new target.

"Does anyone actually have a plan right now?" Mahad asked, hesitating a third time in throwing his boomerang.

"We had one," Dahlia started, pausing to shoot her energy bow "It just hit the fan."

"So what's the goal right now—"

"DUCK!" Dahlia cut him off, both of them diving to the side as a stray blast obliterated the wall behind them at around where their heads had been. Both looked at it before looking at each other again. "Right now I'm thinking the plan is don't die!"

"Works for me!" Mahad exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet and hurled his boomerang with all his might.

The weapon made an audible whizzing sound as it whipped through its circular path, impacting someone with a satisfying grunt and ricocheting off the weird make-shift armour the person had made and flying back to its master. Mahad had barely caught it again, however, when a shadow fell over him and Dahlia. The pilot blinked and squinted at the vessel. It looked like a transport ship, but why was it barging into a battle zone? The pair quickly looked over to where Lena was still fighting the other three seijinns, all of whom paused when they saw the ship and started to back away from their fight. The other skirmishes continued, though they seemed to slow when the hatch opened and a platform extended.

Eyes popped and jaws went slack as the sounds of boots clicking preceded the man sauntering down the ramp with his hands behind his back.

"Is that-?" Dahlia began

"That's impossible!" Mahad exclaimed. Several feet over Cortez whipped his head around with his eyes wide. His expression almost immediately turned to a glare that briefly glanced Lena, who didn't meet anyone's eye as she shifted uncomfortably, instead focusing on her new opponent.

"Oslo," she said through clenched teeth. The bald man smiled at her in a very unsettling way as he clasped his hands behind his back. He was as pale as ever but, strangely enough, he looked less…brittle. Healthier. It didn't bode well.

"Lena, how very nice to see you again." He drawled, "I see we're having a near complete reunion! How is your mother doing?"

"Leave my family out of this!"

"I'm surprised your little friends didn't look for me. The fools who run the Sphere of course thought I was dead but your little gang of Pirates…unless…" his smile became something between a leer and a smirk and he laughed loudly, throwing his head back with enthusiasm. "Unless you didn't tell them, did you? Now that's very interesting,"

Oslo was now on the block and walked a few steps towards Lena. The young girl stood her ground.

"You Sphere guys all like to talk, don't you? You know that's one of the reasons we beat you all the time." She told him.

"Very well, straight to the point. You are coming with me."

"I don't think so."

"The hard way it is then."

The pair neglected to take their fight to the air as they had done in their showdown at Karzem, though the fight was no less fierce. Blasts were exchanged a rapid pace and were deflected and absorbed. Mahad and Dahlia were a little busy with their own fight. Neither of them were bad shots but the pair they had focused on had good cover and reflexes that were just as good. As the rebels dodged shots themselves they ended up ducking behind a car. At one point Dahlia was thrown off balance and fell into her companion. The young man didn't seem to mind. In fact he gave her a winning grin.

"You know all you had to do was ask," he told her. She rolled her eyes and pushed herself out of his lap.

"Is now really the time for flirting?" she half-snarled at him, though not with quite the vehemence she had once given him.

"Hey, ya' never know what time is gonna be your last in our business!" he retorted.

"Don't say stuff like that." Dahlia told him. If she had yelled it at him he would have shaken the comment off as her usual stream of berating remarks. But it wasn't. Her words were quiet and emphatic. His blue eyes met her brown and searched them before she looked away and cleared her throat uncomfortably before returning her attention to the fight. The young man grabbed her shoulder. He searched her gaze for a moment with an intense, needy curiosity.

"You got it." He agreed with his boyish smile "We save the make out for later!" Dahlia couldn't help it. She rolled her eyes

"You're impossible," she grumbled affectionately. He laughed out loud at that and stood to throw his boomerang again.

"You bet I am—whoahhhaahhah!"

"Mahad!" Dahlia cried as the pilot was struck square in the chest as he stood by a seijinn blast from Artemis.

Mahad's cry distracted Lena for a split second as her head whipped around in the direction of her brother's yell. Her momentary distraction from the increasingly heated battle she was in was all that Oslo needed to send a particularly powerful energy blast at her. The force of the attack sent her flying and she slammed into the wall of a nearby building, her head cracking against it with a sickening sound. She slid down the brick and crumpled to the ground, leaving a thin trail of red from her head wound on the burgundy bricks. She didn't get up. There was a chorus of her name as several people called it out at once. Cortez leapt over one of the run down cars in permanent residence on the street to kneel next to the young girl, his back between her and Oslo. He brushed back strands of her hair gently to get a look at the nasty head wound, touching it gingerly, his fingertips coming back red. He quickly moved them to her neck to check for a pulse and visibly relaxed when he felt a slight thumping beneath his fingertips.

He glanced over to where Dahlia was standing with her energy bow and nodded grimly. The blonde let out the breath she had been holding before glaring at Oslo. Rage bubbled up in her at the man for all he had done to her and her adopted family and all that he represented. She clenched her teeth, a muscle in her jaw popping slightly as she yanked the string of her bow back and fired it at him. The first bolt had barely loosed when she fired another and another.

The Guardian sensed the energy missiles before they arrived and put a hand up to absorb them and then deflect another. The blonde snarled at him and took out the blaster she had hooked into her belt and started firing that, moving quickly to avoid his attacks. The Guardian started laughing, amused at the whole thing. After a short time, though, Dahlia found a rope of blue light snapping her arms to her sides and lifting her bodily into the air. She kicked and struggled to no avail as Oslo pulled her forward.

"My, my, look who it is. Still challenging me, I see." The Guardian purred. Dahlia squirmed as she came ever closer to the man who had invaded her mind months before. Oslo cocked his head at her, looking her over. Her lip curled and she kicked out at him again, prompting him to lean back to avoid her foot connecting with his shoulder. He tightened his glowing hand and the "ropes" responded in kind, limiting the rebel's air flow.

"I beat you once! …Put me down…and we'll see who's so smug then!" Dahlia panted angrily, still struggling against the seijinn restraints. She kicked and wriggled even while still fighting simply to breathe. Oslo chuckled.

"Still as stubborn as ever," the guardian remarked.

"Leave her alone!" Mahad yelled as he rushed at the guardian.

"Mahad, no!" Dahlia wheezed as Oslo turned from her and shot up his other hand in a pushing motion, shoving the young pilot into one of the garages across the street. His attention now focused on what was quite possibly the current most prominent bane of his existence the bald man dismissively waved his hand, dropping Dahlia. The blonde fell in a sprawled heap, her hand going to her throat as she coughed and gasped for air. She looked to where Oslo was advancing on Mahad however.

Both Dahlia and the young pilot's eyes widened as several sharp, pointed shards of broken glass and rusted metal jumped into the air at the Guardian's command and zoomed past him towards the red-clad rebel, stopping just inches from him as their manipulator crossed the street slowly.

Mahad tensed and scooted backwards from Oslo as far as the dagger-like shards would allow as the seijinn advanced on him, a cruel sneer on his face.

"Oh don't worry Mahad, I mean to keep you alive. For now, at least. You're a useful…_bargaining chip_, shall we say. But that doesn't mean you have to be in one piec—_argghh_!" The bald man cried out as a blast clipped him unexpectedly and rather painfully in the shoulder, throwing him off balance though not knocking him off his feet. His concentration was broken and the shards fell towards Mahad, who cringed in anticipation only to be showered in dust. When nothing sharp impaled him he cracked an eye open cautiously and propped himself up on his elbow with equal slow care to look down at the grey particles on his uniform. He rubbed a few grains between his fingers. The metal and glass had literally been disintegrated.

"HEY!" A voice shouted angrily from overhead. All heads turned upwards to see a figure standing atop one of the high tower-like structures. The person jumped from their perch and plummeted down to the ground in a streak of shadow and seijinn light. The teenager Dianne landed on the pavement with a resounding smack as she faced Oslo. "Why don't you try picking on someone _your own size_ for once?"

The teenager had shed both coat and collar, revealing the worn black tank top she wore underneath as well as the skin she had been covering; they could now see why that had been a priority for her.

From shoulder to fingertip her arms were reminiscent of generators with the pulsating seijinn-blue light swimming down them, though admittedly that was wasn't unusual of a seijinn preparing to fight. What was rather unnerving was the way her veins were raised and also glowed faintly along her arms and up her neck. They throbbed rhythmically and Cortez wondered if the beat was her pulse made visible by the blue glare. It was more than a little unsettling to see. She seemed oblivious to the stares of those around her however as she threw her shoulders back to face the pale bald man across from her.

"Well?" she demanded when Oslo didn't answer her question. The dictator narrowed his eyes at her, scrutinizing the young woman in front of him. She seemed familiar, he just couldn't place it. She was clearly a seijinn, but that was trivial.

"You clearly have no idea with whom you are dealing." He scoffed arrogantly. Dianne took a single step forward and narrowed her eyes slightly in challenge.

"_Try me_." She hissed dangerously. Oslo raised a non-existent eyebrow and shoved his hand forward without warning, sending a large energy blast her way as the fighting continued around them. The girl tensed slightly but merely raised her head a fraction, causing a wall of blue to fly up between them which caught and absorbed the blast. The wall shattered when she spun around and kicked her own blast at the guardian in a precise and calculated motion. Oslo was barely able to stop it and then struggled to re-absorb it. He finally did so with a grunt of exertion and followed it up with a two-pronged rapid-fire attack. Dianne side-stepped and then leapt about 10 feet into the air. When she landed however, she grimaced and slapped her hand to the side of her head as though in pain. Her arms flared even more brightly for a moment and then she was back on her feet and attacking, her moves remaining rigidly controlled and precise, her face tense with concentration.

"Impressive." He conceded. "But let's see how you handle _this_!"

He spread his arms wide, seijinn power leaping off him in flames before lunging forward, sending a massive wave at the girl. She responded by digging her heels into the ground, bracing herself, and throwing her hands forward to stop the blast. Her hands tensed into claw-like shapes as she struggled with the onslaught of power, though her eyes never left Oslo's in spite of the blinding level of light. A muscle in her jaw started popping slightly and she winced, her head jerking to the slightly in discomfort. Suddenly her hands clenched and snapped outwards to the sides, clearing the blue light in one sweep. Almost as soon as she had accomplished this, however, Dianne cried out and grabbed her head in apparent pain.

"Stop it!" She growled, seemingly at no one as she bent over slightly. She was forced to recover quickly as Oslo sent another attack her way, planning to capitalize on any weakness. Her arm didn't quite come up in time and she was sent flying off her feet, bouncing off one of the old cars and landing hard on her front with a grunt. The Dictator sauntered over menacingly while the teenager started to push herself up, her body trembling.

"Foolish girl!" he taunted, misinterpreting her shaking as an indication of exertion. He spread his arms triumphantly "Now you see what comes of standing in my way! Perhaps I should throw you into a new prison after I'm done studying you," he crowed, laughing cruelly. Dianne's hand tightened into a fist on the ground. He continued talking, his words coloured by the hint of a dark chuckle of victory.

"Nevertheless, you were impressive. You shall make a fine addition to my rule should you choose to serve me, what do you say? Stand with me or burn with the rest of these rebel scum?"

In an impossibly quick motion Dianne whipped her head around to look at him, making the dictator's laugh die on his lips as he recoiled, his eyes wide. Behind the strands of dark hair framing her face the several veins along her head and face were raised and glowing just as those on her arms were and her eyes were twin voids of seijinn blue, her features contorted in a snarl of rage.

The area around them exploded in seijinn power, disintegrating the car she had slammed into as well as a lamp post and a nearby controller whilst also hurtling everyone off their feet with a cry at the blinding light. When they were able to open their eyes Dianne was standing in the middle of the street glaring at Oslo with her void-like eyes. Flames of power leapt off her body in an inferno of blue. She made a terrifying sound somewhere between a roar and a shriek as her leg swooped down in a sharp arc that sent a torrent of blue flame at the bald man.

In a rare instance Oslo made no attempt to absorb or deflect the blow and instead dove to the side to avoid it with a grunt and then scrambled awkwardly to escape another attack as another ball of raging blue fire hurtled towards him.

Her powerful, sweeping kicks summoned arcs of flame rather than a ray or a blast as was typical seijinn fighting technique. Each of these was accompanied with a wordless exclamation, not of effort, but of pure aggression and—if Cortez and Kale were not mistaken—a hint of elation. Unfortunately, Oslo wasn't the only one to be on the receiving end of these attacks, they truly were like wild fire; undeniable power but little control. The onlookers frequently had to duck or move away to avoid being hit themselves and the architecture was taking a real beating. At one point Cortez had to snatch the unconscious Lena up to move her out of harms' way.

The display was terrifying, but equally hypnotic. No one else opened fire because they couldn't look away. One thing was strangely clear as well; Oslo actually looked frightened. For the first time in his life he felt truly out of his depth in battle, and it wasn't something he had expected. When he looked back on this fight later he would likely be able to pick out the flaws in the young woman's technique, but there was no denying the raw _power_. The thought of that raw energy nearly made him drool even as he blanched and ducked. After being sent flying into the air and then lashed with an arc of blue flame he landed hard on the ground. It was at this point that he turned to the other guardians he had assembled for this little trip along with the renegades who were secretly under his control.

"What are you waiting for?" He growled at them "ATTACK!"

The seijinns he had brought with him moved to rush forward and that was when everyone sort of woke up. Or tried to.

"*_Don't you dare!*" _Dianne hissed at them, "*_I haven't had a decent fight in ages.*" _The rebels were a little taken aback at this.

Two of the five guardians rushed her from either side, energy-blasts growing in their hands. Dianne chuckled darkly and shot her arms out straight to the sides, palms up and head tilted back slightly. The seijinns stopped short almost comically, as though they had run into a wall. The young woman then straightened her hands to line up with her arms and turned them inwards, clapping them together and bringing the pair colliding together. They crumpled in a groaning heap onto the ground. She smirked at the pair. The others looked on with wide eyes and the sphere group started to run. The thugs were less obvious about it, but also made their retreat, slinking off into the shadows. The young woman looked down at the pair she'd smacked together.

"*_Pathetic_.*" She snarled and swept her arm sharply, sending them both flying towards their patrollers. This time when they landed they scurried to their feet and limped off towards their patroller. Oslo was backing away, his face frozen in a glare of mingled anger, defeat and…was that _fear_? Dianne suddenly looked round at him in one sharp, linear, bird-like motion to glare at him. That was when he turned tail and ran. She seemed angry at this. When the ships' engines revved and started to propel the patrollers forward she dashed forward with a shriek of rage and shoved a massive blast of energy at one of them. It missed the mark but still grazed one of the engines, disintegrating it completely. She watched this with several deep, heaving breaths, making high-pitched gasping sounds like an addict on a high. Indeed, her eyes even rolled back into her head.

When she opened them again, however, the irises and pupils had once again replaced the seijinn light and the flames died down from her skin. The raised, glowing veins and muscles remained, however, as did the generator-like flows of light. As she slowly looked around at them her shoulders came back and down as she straightened. The feral aggression seemed to have vanished from her face with the glaring light in her eyes, her expression now guarded and tense. She looked at the damage she had wreaked around her and then at her hand again, differently this time; this time her hand shook and she clenched into a fist and closed her eyes, jerking her head away as though disgusted by the sight of it. Without a word she turned and walked slowly towards the street again. People parted before she was so much as a metre away from them and she stopped, stiffening a little before ducking her head and walking faster. Once she had past them she broke into a run, the sound of her footfalls echoing in the silence.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Disclaimer: I do not Skyland, etc, etc. **_

_**Author's note: And I have once again returned from another long break between chapters. I am hoping to be able to get along with this story more quickly now that I am done my exams. We can only hope. Please, pretty please leave me a review to tell me that you're still hanging in there with this thing! Reviews are love…**_

**Chapter 10 **

**The Future.  
>Location: Lighthouse Block-piece.<strong>

Oslo regarded the run-down old Lighthouse with a derogatory snort. _This _was where the most powerful seijinn in Skyland, where _The Phoenix _had been living? He could understand Lena's sentimentality but he'd always thought that the Phoenix might have possessed more pride even if it lacked the teenager's sense. He did have to admit that it was a clever hiding place, though. Perhaps the youth was gaining some control over her powers. Hmm. That could be interesting…or potentially very awkward. To be certain of his capture he ordered that his soldiers carry and load their high-powered tranquilizer guns in addition to their Xelerium blasters and cuffs. He had underestimated the girl before; it was not going to happen again.

"Prepare the docking mechanisms," He ordered almost absentmindedly. Said docking process was very brief. Oslo was greeted by the two guardians who had pursued the girl stood waiting for them, both looking a little worse for wear; both were starting to develop considerable bruising and Poe was struggling not to clutch at his broken ribs. His apprentice looked as though she were favouring one side. Oslo didn't particularly care about their discomfort, though it was certainly interesting to note the effects of lesser Seijinns combating the Phoenix. Their masked soldiers didn't look any better, though their programming required their body to ignore physical pain and continue following their orders until physically incapable of doing so.

"Commander Oslo!" The Guardian called Poe stuttered, stumbling into a sort of salute that made his apprentice grimace with embarrassment "The Rebel hideout is secure. We await your orders,"

"Where is the girl?" he demanded. Poe swallowed and fidgeted nervously, his apprentice flushing with humiliation.

"She…um…she got away."

"How? You reported that you had recovered the speeder which was stolen and that none of your patrol ships are missing. What did she use to escape?"

"We…er…we don't actually…know." Poe stammered sheepishly. His apprentice stepped forward, eager to do some damage control if it were possible.

"Commander she attacked us and knocked us out. When we regained consciousness she and the old man were gone. We have found no trace of them in this lighthouse."

Oslo frowned.

"None at all?" he enquired. Surely these idiots possessed at least some sensory ability.

"No sir. We sense no seijinn activity and the soldiers have not recovered—"

"Worthless fools!" Oslo raged, sweeping an arm powerfully. The already somewhat-battered guardians were thrown into the light house door. The head guardian strode into the building, stepping over them with contempt. The pair trembled with well-deserved fear. They had failed spectacularly and failure came with a very high price among guardians these days; gone were the days where the likes of Jeloah, Artemis and (following the arrival of Lena and Mahad) Di Wan could repeatedly fail with little more than reprimands and loss of privileges. The Dictator peered around the lighthouse, his superior seijinn senses telling him that there was indeed still one unaccounted for person in the area. Not a seijinn, unfortunately, but he was there. Oslo walked up the winding staircase with two of the masked soldiers behind him and the two disgraced guardians following meekly.

The head guardian stopped and looked up at the ceiling, his hard, grey eyes narrowing slightly. He reached up a pale hand which started to glow and pressed the thumb and forefinger together and pulled down. A floorboard released and a string fell down. It immediately started to glow and continued moving towards the floor, pulling down a folding staircase with it. Oslo smirked at this and rose into the air with the assistance of his powers, levitating up through the hole in the ceiling into the hidden room and allowing his minions to climb the stairs.

Through the hole he found a little room, quite ingeniously designed, he had to admit, for it provided both space and efficiency in addition to its secrecy. His attention snapped to the old man and the device in the corner and shot out a hand blazing with blue fire, yanking him off his feet and into the air. The seijinn chuckled deep in his throat as the elderly man struggled in the air, clutching at his throat and babbling nonsensically with pleas of mercy and innocence.

"Well, well, well," Oslo purred "Look what we have here,"

"Please!" The old man gasped "I am a humble scientist! If I'm behind on my water payments—"

"Spare me your pathetic charade old man!" Oslo interrupted snidely. He lowered his arm as the Masked Soldiers followed him up, his prey lowering back to the ground along with him. The old man the rebels called 'the Vector' wheezed and coughed pathetically. "Now, where is Lena?"

The Vector looked up at him slowly, a scowl further deepening the wrinkles on his forehead as he glared up at his attacker with as much venom as he could muster.

"I'll never tell you! You…you hard-hearted monster—ohh! aarrhh!" The rebel was cut off mid-insult by a small blast of seijinn energy that pushed him across the floor and into the legs of a table of equipment, some of the gadgets falling down onto him. He moaned pitifully and struggled to turn over, his whole body aching. It had not been a powerful blast, but his body was old and not in the best of shape. He opened his eyes and squinted up to see the Dictator towering over him, now flanked by several of the masked soldiers.

"I will not ask again, old man," Oslo stated "Where is the girl?"

The Vector didn't answer. The seijinn's scowl deepened.

"Fine!" he snapped, his burning hands coming up towards his head, his index and middle fingers touching either side of his temple as he started to concentrate on the old man's mind, "Then we'll do it the _hard way_,"

**Year 2252  
>Location: Oxford Block<strong>

"You, young lady, are very lucky that you're a seijinn." Darius commented as he gently dabbed a pad of gauze onto the young girl's forehead. She winced and breathed sharply as the poultice on the white square stung a little when it came into contact with her rapidly healing flesh. Her brother, kneeling next to where she was sitting against the wall she had been thrown against, patted her shoulder comfortingly and Dahlia smiled at her reassuringly.

"Ouch!" she exclaimed when Darius dabbed at another, more sensitive point along the side of her face with the cloth "That stings! You don't even need to do this; it'll be all better tomorrow, two days at most."

"No, it will have _closed up_ in that time. We should still clean it and keep it clean to make sure it doesn't get infected." Darius corrected her.

"Yeah, Squirt, you may be a seijinn but you're still not invincible. Not yet anyway." Mahad said jokingly. His sister heaved an irritated sigh as a new pad of gauze was pressed to the wound and held there whilst her attendant took out some surgical tape to hold it in place. The pilot automatically added his fingers over the pad so that the man helping his sister could conduct his task more easily.

"I never get sick." Lena grumbled.

"And that has absolutely nothing to do with being a seijinn. You're just as prone to infection as others. As a matter of fact…" Darius trailed off with a slight frown as he put the back of his hand to her neck lightly "You're a little warm now."

"I always run on a higher temperature." Lena told him, "That's what the Vector said."

"Seijinns do have a slightly higher average for their body temperature, that's true." Darius conceded "But it's only about 0.3 degrees Celsius higher on average. I suppose it could be a result of the fact that you were just fighting. We'll check it again later. In the meantime, young lady, you are to take it easy."

"Thanks Darius. I'll make sure she doesn't go blowing things up." Mahad said with a slight laugh, though there was no disguising the worry in his eyes. He turned to his sister "You know you're so gonna get it when mom hears about this…"

The two blondes smiled slightly and started to walk away in order to give them a little privacy, though Dahlia didn't mirror the slight, worried smile the two men held. Her gaze was harder, her lips pursed into a thin line even if she was visibly relieved. Lena watched as Dahlia and Darius walked away. When they were just about out of earshot she looked to her brother.

"It's not just mom who's gonna be mad at me though, is it?" the girl asked. Mahad closed his mouth, his expression sobering.

"No," he said simply. Lena searched his face, hers shifting into a sad and slightly desperate expression

"_You're_ mad at me!" she said

"Lena, you just had your head cracked open. We'll talk about this later, after you've healed a little. If we don't, mom will be after _my _butt."

The rebel and fugitive, in the meantime, paused to glance back at the Farrell siblings to see that they still seemed fine before turning the corner.

"Thank you Darius, for all your help." Dahlia said once they'd rounded said corner. "We really appreciate it."

"Not at all," Darius said with a slight smile as he held out a hand to shake. The blonde stared at it and then at his face but made no move to take the offered hand. She had nothing against him, but being within Oslo's clutches again with that creepy laugh had brought up a few more unpleasant memories and the man in front of her still bore an unfortunate resemblance. He seemed to sense her internal struggle and lowered his hand, offering her another smile to try and show that he understood, even if he was a little hurt.

"Actually, there are a couple of people who would like a word with you before you leave. For one, Jane is awake. She'd like to thank you." He said carefully. Dahlia blinked and frowned slightly in confusion.

"Jane? Who's—oh. Right." She said shortly. She cleared her throat "Who else wanted to talk to me?"

"I did." Victoria said as she walked over to them. She had sustained her fair share of wounds from this fight too; there was a large rip on one sleeve that bared her shoulder, which in turn bore a large, rough scrape. Her face was bruised and she was limping slightly.

Noticing Dahlia's gaze flitting discreetly across her injuries the woman shrugged self-deprecatingly

"I'm no hardened warrior, just a mule-headed academic. My chief discipline is archeology, which gave no few in the film history department a laugh, I don't mind telling you! People started to call me Professor Jones!"

At the blank look on Dahlia's face Victoria's expression fell slightly and became more serious again. She waved it off.

"Never mind, you'd have to take the course to get it, I suppose. Point is, I occasionally teach courses on strategy and I happen to be a good shot, but other than that I'm not trained in physical fighting. I just give it my all."

"Sometimes that's all you need." The blonde told her carefully. The older woman laughed out loud at that, puzzling the rebel who hadn't thought the remark worthy of more than a smirk.

"I'm sorry," Victoria said at seeing the expression on her face "You just reminded me so much of Dianne there…of your mother. She and I were very good friends—"

"I know." Dahlia said "I remember some stuff from…here."

"Not much good, I'll wager."

"A little of it is good." The blonde said reluctantly. "Stuff from—you know, _before_—with mum and Wanda an-and you. Of course." Victoria smiled sadly.

"It's alright. You don't need to lie. I know you don't remember me very well, if at all. And that's…that's fine. It's partially my fault that we're strangers." She said, turning slightly in discomfort. She searched the younger woman's face and the corner of her mouth twitched and her voice taking on a distant tone "You look so much like your mother. And your sister."

"I looked for her." Dahlia said, both women taking a seat on the sidewalk. "For years."

"I know." Victoria told her.

"You had…connections to the Sphere: students, leverage, stuff that you built after what happened." The younger woman said, talking a little with her hands as she tried to figure out how to phrase what she wanted to say, the burning question she wanted to ask. "Did you ever find out what happened to her? To Wanda?"

The Professor didn't look away at the question, though she did clearly have difficulty in answering it. She opened and closed her mouth several times, grimacing in an attempt at a smile.

"We might have." She finally answered. Dahlia frowned slightly, her eyes narrowing in confusion.

"What do you mean '_might'_?"

88888888

"I see ye don't exactly have a problem with heights." Cortez commented as he climbed up the ladder to the old bell tower and balanced across the rafters. The teenager was perching on the edge overlooking the block with her knees drawn up to her chest, her toes over the edge and her coat tucked close to her body, her hands clamped over her ears and her eyes clamped shut. Her face twitched every once in a while and she was rocking slightly. The captain frowned slightly at this and approached very carefully. She was muttering something that he couldn't quite make out.

Her head moved to the side slightly in profile as she glanced over her shoulder but didn't look around at him fully, her dark hair now quite shaggy as it remained half-in-half-out of the braid it had been confined to earlier with uneven sections framing her face and catching in the breeze. She shrugged her shoulders higher up towards her neck and tightened her arms around her knees in response, looking resolutely out at the block rather than at him.

The bright, generator-like glow on her skin still remained in spite of the fact that she had ended her fight over an hour ago, though the movement of the light had slowed somewhat. The veins and muscles were still raised slightly and glowing as well. On closer look the captain noticed other things as well. He could see the shadows etched under the eyes, the not-quite sunken cheeks and the painful way joins seemed to stick out where there wasn't muscle to go over the bone. The girl had the tortured body of a dancer; wiry muscle tone over bone and not an ounce of fat between the skin and muscle.

"It's okay if it gives you the creeps." She said, startling Cortez out of his thoughts. He looked up from her pulsating arms to where one eye was staring at him from behind her dark hair. "People aren't supposed to look like this. I'm aware of that and so is everyone else on this block—I wish they'd shut up about it!"

Cortez slowly sat down to join her, if nothing else than to show the girl that he wasn't "creeped out" and that she had no reason to fear him, though something told him that he wasn't high on her list of worries right now; he could now guess what she had been muttering. She made a slight grunting noise and tensed further for a moment before relaxing somewhat. Her eyes opened and she looked at him directly and wrapped her arms around her knees.

Cortez had noticed and did notice that she seemed to have traded in the splint that had been used to set her broken arm for the slightly repulsive illuminated pulsating veins.

"Ye're a fast healer." He commented. She shrugged.

"It's handy." She said

"Does it hurt you when it's healing?" the captain enquired. She scoffed in a way that didn't require a verbal confirmation, though she gave one anyway.

"Hmph. You have _no_ idea."

There were several long moments of awkward silence.

"What happened?" Cortez finally asked her. She looked at him questioningly and then out at the landscape again. She said nothing. Cortez switched tactics and decided to get right to the point, stating "Ye knew Oslo was alive."

"Didn't realize you didn't." she said. He frowned slightly at this, not sure whether or not he believed her, but filed that away for later when she looked around at him and continued fervently "I know a lot of things. I can be useful and I want to help. I want to stop _him_! You've barely scratched the surface of this. Those people on your ship weren't just randomly there!"

"And you know what they were after?" Cortez hinted

"Isn't it obvious?" Dianne demanded. The Captain returned her gaze steadily, waiting for her to elaborate. "Shinsiki and Darius!" she said finally.

"That's impossible, how could they know they were here?" he began

"No, no, no, no!" the teenager exclaimed in annoyance, irritated that he wasn't getting it "They wanted the _information_ you had on them in your records, on the light chamber stuff! Oslo used to need Darius to recharge him because they shared DNA, but Shinsiki was able to drain people completely unrelated to her. You saw him, he's clearly gotten hold of someone else, but they survived more than one session. He needs to know how to refine the process so that he can continue his _experiments_." She spat out the last word with such venom that the captain was surprised that nothing started to float in the air or explode. Her previous display of power had been impressive, but hadn't given him much confidence in her control of said powers. What she had said earlier whilst fighting Oslo also replayed themselves in his mind…

_What's the matter, Leach? Can't you win without your experiments? Without draining? Who are you planning to tamper with next? Is it one these idiots working for you? Well, IS IT?_

"Were _you_ one of those experiments?" he asked her carefully. It was the only explanation that he could think of to explain it. She looked around at him sharply and blinked several times, apparently unprepared for such a question. She opened and closed her mouth a few times before looking away awkwardly.

"Yes," she said quietly, an afterthought.

Cortez frowned. Even though it had been his deductive guess, he wasn't entirely sure he believed her answer. He didn't have time to dwell on that, however, and simply nodded. Just then his radio went off.

"_Cortez! Cortez_!" Cheng's frightened voice exclaimed. The captain picked up his personal radio and brought it to his mouth immediately

"Cheng, what is it? Are ye alright?" he asked.

"_I'm okay_," Cheng reassured him before panic returned to his tone "_But we have a big problem_!"

88888888888

"That better?" Darius asked the young woman he had been calling 'Jane' as he replaced a bandage around her wrist.

"Yes, thank you Darius." The woman that the rebels had always known as Di Wan said, massaging her wrist a little and flexing her fingers experimentally.

"You should try and get outside. Sunlight will help you heal faster. You'll probably only need that for a day or two more."

"I appreciate it," She replied coolly. The man patted her shoulder and turned to leave, prompting her to beckon him back "Darius, wait. That woman—the one who gave me her blood—is she still here?"

"Oh, I'm here!" Dahlia growled as she charged up the hallway trailed slightly by Wayan who seemed to be trying to calm her down. He reached out and grabbed her arm to slow her. She shot him a look that promised bad things to happen if he didn't cease and desist while shrugging him off. The other rebel held back a few paces as Dahlia continued up to the former guardian furiously , her finger jabbing threateningly at the other woman.

"I don't know what kind of sick game you're think you're playing but it ends here!" she snarled at Di Wan. The former guardian stared at her, her brown eyes widening.

"_You_!" She half-breathed, half-exclaimed. "_You're_ Dahlia?"

"Cut the act Di Wan!" Dahlia snarled at her, leaning forward and gripping the rail at the foot of the bed with white knuckles "This is us you're talking too now, we _know_ you—"

"You really think so?" Di Wan retorted, cocking an eyebrow at her. Dahlia froze mid-word at the interruption, her expression shifting into one of border-line fury.

"We _know_ _your tricks!_ We're not like the sheltered academics here, your little game of _pretend_ isn't going to work on us—leave me _alone_ Wayan!" she growled at her friend as he reached a hand to her shoulder to start pulling her away with a muttered piece of advice that she didn't listen to or hear.

"Dahlia!" Victoria exclaimed as she jogged over to them "Darling, please, I didn't tell you to upset you!"

"She's _lying_ to you Victoria, she's a Guardian! Manipulation is what she's good at!" the blonde rebel informed the professor, her voice quiet but her expression thunderous.

"Dahlia—"

"_She is not my sister_!" the blonde snapped at them sharply "She just wants you to think that she's some-some prodigal daughter so that you'll trust her! She probably helped organize the raid with her _buddy_ Oslo!" the blonde's furious gaze snapped back to "Jane" at the final two words.

"I have no loyalty to Oslo," Di Wan said coldly, meeting the other blonde's gaze with level calm, adding, "Not anymore,".

Dahlia's face held anger and vicious satisfaction tinged with completed and utter suspicion as she crossed her arms over her chest. Victoria's jaw dropped.

"You've remembered!" the academic exclaimed.

"I knew it," Dahlia sneered. Di Wan turned her attention to Victoria and her manner softened somewhat.

"Its been coming back a while. I didn't know how or what to tell you. It seems that was wise," Di Wan said to Victoria apologetically before looking back at Dahlia. She raised a questioning eyebrow even as she narrowed her eyes and raised her chin a fraction, taking a half step towards the rebel. "You were born _here_? Here on Oxford?"

"What's going on here?" Cortez demanded as he strode into the room. Di Wan stiffened and retreated her step, automatically tensing as though in preparation for a fight.

"Di Wan's learned some new tricks." Dahlia informed her captain tersely as she started to stalk off, bumping him slightly as she did so, "I'm going back to the ship, see what I can do there,"

"Aye, that might be an idea, ye can help Kale rig the cell again," Cortez said, halting the blonde rebel. She turned slowly and blinked

"...What?" she asked.

"The St. Nazaire was boarded,"

"_What_?!" Dahlia, Wayan and Victoria exclaimed in unison.

"Is Cheng—" Dahlia started

"He and Kale are fine." Cortez told them "They managed to fight them off. Unfortunately, Shinsiki got away at some point during the chaos. They don't know when,"

"Great Skyland…" Dahlia trailed off with a weary sigh.

"What are we going to do?" Wayan asked.

"There's not much we can do about Shinsiki. On the other hand," Cortez looked at Victoria and Darius staring at them along with Di Wan. He glared at Di Wan and then turned his attention to Darius. The man held up a hand and nodded

"I know." He said "Baldur and I cannot stay here."

"We can give them a ride to their new hiding place," Victoria offered. "That was the plan when he came to visit anyway. No one will suspect one of our maintenance ships, and I promise you it will be the highest security. I'll drive and no one will know but me."

"Thank ye," Cortez said with a nod of gratitude before turning another glare on the woman in the bed. Di Wan looked from him to Dahlia and then back again with a somewhat frightened expression.

"We can't leave her here. She's already done enough damage." Dahlia said coldly.

"She's been no trouble—" Victoria began

"She's a Guardian!"

"She's your sister,"

"No, she isn't! She's a telepath who's using what you want to hear against you!"

"I have done no such thing!" Di Wan exclaimed indignantly. They ignored her.

"Well, we can't take her…home," Dahlia said to Cortez, carefully avoiding the name of the block.

"If she is telling the truth though—" Wayan started

"Oh please!" Dahlia snapped

"_If," _Wayan repeated "She's telling the truth, and she's really given the Sphere and Oslo over, then she could be in as much danger from the Sphere as we are, especially if she really did help these people when they were attacked,"

"Which she did," Victoria added quickly.

"Captain, after this much time she's a deserter. The Sphere doesn't tend to be very understanding about that. Doesn't matter if you have a good reason," Wayan added before turning his attention to Di Wan as she watched them with closed lips and clenched teeth. His eyes darted up and down in a quick, appraising glance before remarking "You wouldn't be in very good shape even if you did rat us out to go back to them,"

Di Wan cocked an eyebrow at him.

"You don't say?" she retorted dryly. It was a sort of challenge, the way she said it, and that challenge was aimed directly at the rebel Captain. She quite clearly remembered a number of their radio exchanges through the years. They had dropped in number after Mahad and Lena had emerged. The fun had been lost for her. She had too often been on the losing side following those brats' arrival.

Cortez remembered those conversations too and crossed his arms over his chest. He was caught between two sides with Victoria and Wayan on one hand and an adamant Dahlia on the other. He himself felt inclined to agree with Dahlia but could see the problem that she presented if she remained in an already-compromised block. She could also be a valuable source of information. The joys of leadership.

"Very well. She can't stay here either way. We'll take her and figure out what to do with her. We'll blind fold and sedate her if we have to," he said

"Captain, you can't be serious!" Dahlia exclaimed to his retreating back. "Captain!"

"We're leaving in an hour. I expect everyone to be ready," he barked, ending the discussion definitively as he strode away. Dahlia seemed to deflate slightly in disbelief but then set her mouth in a grim line and pushed away from the rails at the foot of Di Wan's bed, stalking off herself. Victoria seemed torn. She patted Di Wan's shoulder comfortingly and then followed Cortez, jogging to catch up with him.

"Aran, wait a moment," She beckoned. Somewhat to her surprise he obliged her and slowed his pace.

"If she really is what you say she is, then—but Cortez, please. She's a sweet girl. You haven't seen her these past few months. She was a child here. You didn't know that child," The Professor pleaded.

"Aye, but I knew the adult," Cortez growled. He scowled a nondescript point on the wall and put his hands on his hips as he considered the information at hand before finally looking back at Victoria.

"Can ye have those DNA tests done before we leave?"

"They've already been running for a couple of days. I wanted to see if she actually was Dianne's daughter and there was already some similarities recognized with Dahlia's blood for the transfusion. I can get it hurried through,"

"Aye, do that," Cortez said. "It'll make things a little…well we'll know better where we stand,"

The Professor nodded. The captain softened slightly at the guarded, but undeniably solemn expression on her face.

"We're not the Sphere. We won't do to her what they'd do to us," he assured her. Victoria forced a small smile onto her face.

"I know," she said. Just as he started to turn again she added "You're a good Captain, Aran,"

"Thank you," Cortez said with a curt nod of acknowledgement and respect.

"I mean it. Don't let anyone tell you differently,"

"I know everyone would much prefer Marcus," Cortez said, trying to communicate to her that she didn't have to go out of her way to make him feel better. Victoria shook her head

"Marcus could never have done what you have. He ignited the flames and fed them recklessly but I don't think he could have labored over simmering coals. You might not have his charisma, but _you_ were the one that kept the rebellion alive and picked up the pieces and kept going. That's an incredible feat. Don't let anyone tell you anything different," she stated. As she finished her little speech she held out her hand. The Captain grasped it and they shook twice before yanking together for a brief, comradely hug complete with a slap on the back.

"Aye, it was good to see you," Cortez admitted.

"So I have to stroke your ego before you'll admit it?" Victoria teased "It's alright. If I don't see you again before you go; safe trip. And take care of those girls for me,"

"Ye could always come with us," he pointed out

"What? Leave Oxford? I'm surprised at you, Aran! You know that I'm happily married to my work. I'm not about to file for separation." She told him with a wink before sobering. "Dahlia is your girl through and through now and your friend is right. Wanda will just be in danger here. So…if I don't see you before you go, safe travels, Old Friend. Our doors are always open."

"Aye," Cortez said with a nod, "Thank Ye,"

With that the two headed in opposite directions, parting ways once again. Neither looked around but both were thinking about their friend; some of the more "illustrious" and "connected" students at Oxford were bound to cause trouble somehow in Cortez's opinion.

As for him and his crew…Skyland only knew the trouble they were hurtling towards.

**Please review.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: This chapter hasn't gotten much in the way of an edit, so I'll apologize in advance for any typos. I am just really tired right now and really wanted to get it posted. I've also opened a Deviantart account and have posted a picture in relation to this story, so please check it out and tell me what you think. Speaking of leaving me a note…please review, as usual. The link to the picture will be at the end of the chapter. **

**Chapter 11**

**Year 2252**

** Chapter 11**

**Year 2252**

Within hours of departing the Oxford Block the Saint Nazaire stopped at the Rendezvous point to find a mosquito waiting for them. As they neared it someone got out of the small air craft and leaned against it, waiting for them. It was Mila, of course. Cortez had contacted her as soon as they had been able to and very little would have stopped her from coming, the Captain knew that much. Hence, he was not surprised to see that she had managed to round someone up for a ride, enlisting Sanskin to fly her in and land the mosquito on the outer deck. The pair had become rather good friends, he gathered. They certainly had a certain shared set of fears being realized; being taken prisoner and having their children threatened.

Lena and Mahad both went out to greet her, well aware that it was a mandatory filial duty for them since their mother's release. It was one they did rather happily; the separation had instilled a deep sense of gratitude for her presence in their lives again and usually they reveled in these hugs. Usually. Both knew that this particular reunion was unlikely to be as pleasant as most were. As expected, Mila rushed over and threw an arm around each of her children as soon as she had hopped down from the mosquito. Neither Lena nor Mahad seemed to think that her stumble upon landing was anything unusual, no doubt dismissing it as a simple misstep or even a lack of 'Ship legs' or something.

"Thank goodness!" Mila breathed, one hand stroking her daughter's hair as she kissed Lena's forehead and then Mahad's in turn.

"Mom! We're _fine_!" Mahad groaned, though he didn't disentangle himself from Mila's grasp immediately, waiting about half a minute before doing so gently. He no longer found it embarrassing as he might have done two years ago on Babylonia. He wouldn't be mocked for it with the rebels as he might have been with his former classmates anyway; too many of them would give anything for the opportunity to show their mother or father or other loved one some kind of affection again. Six months ago he himself had been in the same boat, watching the reunions he and his sister had made possible with the feelings of pride and satisfaction heavily laced with envy. Mila released him and put both hands on Lena's shoulders, holding her at arm's length to examine her daughter. She gripped the young girl's chin and tilted it up slightly to get a better look at where she had been wounded. The area was still a little red but was healing at the remarkable pace that even few seijinns could achieve. Nevertheless, her mother still pursed her lips and sighed.

"You have got to be more careful young lady," she scolded

"Mom, I'm _okay_!" Lena told her, exasperated

"We are going to be having a conversation about this when we get home!" Her mother snapped. Mila's heart was still pounding in her ears at the idea of Oslo getting his hands on her children. She and Sanskin both walked with them to the door leading to the bridge of the Saint Nazaire.

"Cortez," Mila greeted.

"Mila," he returned. He quickly glanced around and motioned to the gladiator standing with Cheng by the console. "Kale, you, Sanskin and Cheng have the bridge. Everyone else, the cabin,"

Kale nodded eagerly and stepped forward to take the ship wheel as Cortez stepped down the metal stairs to head the line towards his cabin. The others followed suit and filed in to the windowed room. They walked in to see that someone was already there; a young woman stood with her hands clasped behind her back, looking out the window. Her red hair was sheared short and she wore a black sphere uniform. When she turned around at the sound of the door opening the others could see the small red tattoo similar to Di Wan's, though smaller in size, over one eye. On her sleeve was the Sphere insignia overlaid with a crude drawing of a pen. A clerk's insignia. Di Wan had been true to her word.

Mila was a little taken aback to see a guardian in the captain's cabin and, moreover, to see the others apparently so happy about it; Dahlia nodded to her respectfully, Wayan smiled good naturedly and went over to shake her hand once, each clasping the others elbow briefly in a comradely way and Mahad and Lena both grinned.

"Alice!" Lena exclaimed happily.

"I didn't know you were coming here!" Mahad half-laughed. He followed the dark-skinned rebel's example and clasped the guardian's elbow.

"As soon as I heard about Oxford I knew I had to come. I can't stay. They're expecting me back tomorrow at the academy, but Cortez asked me to come," she said as she hugged Lena quickly. When she saw the girl's mother her eyes widened a fraction and she straightened. Her hand raised as though to start a salute before she seemed to think better of it and ran her fingers through the hair on the side of her head awkwardly instead. She stood at attention as she addressed the seijinn and nodded to her curtly as she took a step forward and offered her a hand "It is an honor to meet you, Ma'am,"

The older seijinn raised her eyebrows

"I'm…surprised to hear it," she stated "I didn't exactly leave the Academy on the best of terms…"

"No, you're notorious," Alice agreed "Half the teachers call you a traitor and the other half hold you up as a cautionary tale of Stockholm's' Syndrome in Seijinns. But since I found out the truth about the Sphere…well. Let's just say that I've been reevaluating my lessons. I'm not the only one, either,"

Mila nodded in a mixture of respect and gratitude. She had, of course, been told the story of how Alice came to Puerto Angel and secretly changed her allegiance before returning to the Sphere as a rebel spy. It made little difference to her what Guardians thought about her after all these years, but it was still somewhat comforting to know that she hadn't become as much of a caricatured banshee amongst young seijinns as she was a glorified martyr to her children and their friends. It wasn't something that she dwelt on very long, particularly when her head was pounding and her legs a little shaky. She took Alice's hand and shook it, a small wisp of seijinn blue flitting around their joined hands briefly. For an instant both grips tightened, both gazes intense. In the next instant the moment was over. Alice blinked, taken aback at what she had sensed. In the next second, however, the expression vanished and was replaced by a strained, friendly smile as she turned to her other friends.

"Would it be okay if we sat down for this meeting? It's been a long day on my feet," she said. The others all nodded quickly in sympathetic agreement and many of them, including Mila, took seats as well. The elder seijinn caught Alice's eye and gave her another small nod, this one deeply grateful to the girl for not revealing her secret even after she had inadvertently discovered it. The expression on the younger woman's face was grim, though. Their brief exchange had imparted to her the older woman's desperation not to uncover her illness—as well as her reasons for the concealment— but Alice apparently shared the Vector's views. Thoughts were much faster than words, however, and Mila had already extracted a similar promise from the young spy as she had from her old friend.

"Alright, let's get down to business. One of our informants should be joining us soon but she suggested we start without her," Cortez said with a weary sigh. His lack of sleep over the past few days was starting to catch up with him. Unfortunately there was always one more crisis…

"Yes, I hear that we have new passengers," Mila remarked calmly, meeting Cortez's gaze with cold question.

"Aye," the Captain said.

"Di Wan," Mahad told her darkly.

"_Di Wan_? But she was killed months ago at the Battle of Karzem!" Alice exclaimed in confusion.

"Aye, we thought so too, but apparently not. We found her on the Oxford block. Claimed she had amnesia and now isn't Oslo's woman anymore,"

"She's lying!" Dahlia snapped, her volume dropping as she added "She's playing us. She _has_ to be,"

"Of course she is, this is Di Wan, remember? " Mahad agreed, patting the blonde's shoulder comfortingly.

"Wayan might have a point about her bridges being burned, though. She didn't exactly have the best track record by the end of it all," Cortez mused aloud. He looked towards Alice expectantly and waited for her insider's input. The redhead sat at attention as she always did and shook her head in confirmation.

"No. She still had some standing, yes, but there were rumors going around about her being replaced. Guardians were starting to vie for the position like circling vultures," the guardian told them. She paused and thought for a moment and then shook her head. "No, I think even as early as when I first met you she was on the way down. She was always interested in me, but she had started fast-tracking me. I think she was looking for a few more favors to call in,"

"Is there any chance that she could be playing us? Trying to catch us or something to get back into their good books? I mean if Oslo is still alive too…"

"_What_?" Alice demanded, looking around at her comrades in shock. She snorted "Didn't _anyone_ stay dead after that battle?"

"Apparently not any Guardians," Dahlia remarked with a shrug before softening "Sorry Alice. We know that those two posed the most danger to you just like they did to us. You should get the word out to your contacts as soon as possible,"

"Believe me, I will," The redhead told her earnestly. She had actively worked to get as far away from a position on Oslo's staff—even his office staff—as possible, well aware that he was one of the few seijinns in Skyland who might be able to break her telepathically. Alice was perhaps on par with Celia, Lucas or Jeloah in terms of raw power but her prodigious gift with the more cerebral aspect of seijinn powers— telepathy and empathy— placed her in a much more elite circle of peers and enemies. As such she was not too worried about her immediate supervisors or the other seijinns who had not already joined her secret cause that surrounded her daily. Oslo, on the other hand, was a terrifying prospect.

"So what do we do with her? We can't trust her. We can't bring her to Puerto Angel," Mahad stated firmly.

"Aye, but we can't leave her somewhere where the Sphere might pick her up again either," Cortez said as he paced slightly, caught in a dilemma.

"Could we drop her off at Ningxia?" Mila asked.

"No, much as Master Zha-Lo might like to see his 'Little Phoenix' again, it's had too much history with the Sphere, too many chances for them to plant spies there," Dahlia reminded them with a shake of her head.

"Well, how about Temuera? They definitely have the guards!" Mahad suggested.

"And have her that close to the Origin? No! What if she brings the sphere back there and they manage to take it away?" Lena demanded indignantly.

"You're the only one who can work it, why would they care?" her brother retorted

"No, she has a point. It's a very dangerous weapon they have there. With or without Lena, you never know what some of their scientists can do with the materials they have," Wayan put in, reasonable as always.

"There has to be somewhere we can put her! It can't be that hard!" Lena said exasperatedly.

"We still don't know if she's even a threat yet. You never know, she might really have changed," Alice said earnestly as she glanced around the room. Mahad, Lena and Dahlia were, predictably, the most adamant in their disbelief towards that sentiment; they'd had the most direct contact with the seijinn apart from maybe Cortez. Mila was dubious, Wayan was— as usual— reasonable and open-minded. Cortez wanted it resolved quickly so that he could move on to the next inevitable emergency.

"I find that hard to believe," The captain remarked in response to her suggestion. He rubbed the back of his neck and heaved a great sigh as he paced slightly. "_But_, we should explore all options. I want someone to talk to her. Do we have any volunteers?"

There was nearly a full minute of silence as glances were exchanged. There were almost too many reasons to want a chat with their fallen enemy, few if any of them very, well, _noble_. There was a vindictive thrill that each of them would be tempted to exercise if they dared. It was unlikely that she would escape this time with the most powerful seijinns present, two of whom had beaten her multiple times. At the same time, however, they had all noticed a certain listlessness. Her barbs had been mostly reactionary and in many cases half-hearted at best. She had been very quiet for the most part and if her injuries were feigned, she was good at concealing it. Overall, if she was leading them on she was bloody good at it.

"I'll do it," Dahlia said finally as she stood from her seat. She saw the surprised looks that they gave her and shrugged. "She's claiming to be my family. She's probably expecting me. Besides, I want to hear what she thinks she has that she thinks will pull the wool over our eyes,"

"I'll go too," Alice said.

"Are you sure? It's risky," Mahad pointed out "I mean, what can she tell the Sphere about us that they don't already know about? We've already got bounties on our heads but you..."

"I know what the risks are, Mahad. I knew them when I signed on for the job. I'll hang back. If she's been that badly hurt her powers probably aren't what they normally are so in poor light she might not be able to sense it's me,"

There was a slight pause as Cortez briefly considered this and then nodded. It was a logical move. It wasn't a solution, but it was a step towards one, potentially.

"Alright. Report back to me after you've spoken to her. Now, what about our other guest? Anyone want to see about her?"

It didn't take any time at all for a volunteer.

8888

:_See? Everything worked out, didn't it? _It whispered in Lena's ear as It wisped around her in its miniature form. The "pair" of them were sitting in one of the windowless cargo bays, though not the one with the mosquitos. She wondered vaguely how long it would take them to make the Mark II. It couldn't be that far off, surely…she shook her head and swatted at the translucent, glowing bird uselessly, her hand moving right through its form and doing little to detract from its intent.

"Leave me alone," She muttered half-heartedly, well aware of the futility of her request.

:_Where are we going?_

"You're in my head, you know what I know, don't you?"

_:No, I know more._

"For heaven's sake!" Dianne sighed hitting her head against the wall tiredly, her elbows resting on her upraised knees. She closed her eyes. The buzzing that almost always in the back of her head was getting louder, the babbling rising to a point just short of being anything coherent. It was maddening. She took a deep breath and held it for several seconds before exhaling slowly and repeating, focusing entirely on her mental shields. While doing so she managed to doze off, for the next thing she knew she was jerking awake with a start at the loud, echoing boom of the door opening.

The teenager looked up at her visitors blankly for several long moments, looking from Mahad to the woman next to him with slight confusion before her eyes widened and her jaw slowly dropped. Mila walked right up to the metal railing and brought her hands down to rest on it, spread wide in an authoritative position. She regarded the teenager with her mouth set in a grim line, a slight frown and narrowed eyes, her head cocked to the side slightly. Neither of them said anything for a very long time. The teenager was vaguely aware of the older woman's gentle probing at her mental shields; even in her mild state of shock upon recognition they were still formidable: they had to be. Still, the probing was just that, probing. Not that the time traveller expected anything less from her. It was Mila who broke the silence.

"So you're the one that everyone is so startled by," she said, not unkindly. "Dianne, isn't it?" As if her words broke some kind of trance the teenager on the level below her suddenly jumped a little and scrambled to get to her feet, smoothing her coat out self-consciously as she stood. She visibly swallowed as she nodded.

"Ye-yes," she stammered. The rebel seijinn's eyebrows rose slightly as she nodded and started to slowly walk down the stairs to join her.

"It takes quite a lot to startle this crew. They've all been through a great deal. It must have been… impressive."

"That's the nice word for it," Dianne said nervously with a high, thin, little laugh. She cleared her throat uncomfortably before stammering "I…ah…um…d'you need to sit down or something?"

"It's okay, it's just my mom, you don't have to worry," Mahad assured her in a friendly way as he jogged down the steps lightly.

Dianne opened and closed her mouth a few times, peering at Mahad in apparent confusion, her brow creasing and head tilting a little in question. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and looked over the rebel pilot's shoulder at his mother, pointing to the young man.

"They don't _know_?" she asked "How…? How do they not know? How long does it take you to tell them?"

"Know what?" Mahad inquired with a frown, taken aback at the question.

"They don't, do they?" Dianne said, stepping around him and ignoring him completely as she approached the steps where Mila still stood. "They can help you! You're wasting so much time and energy hiding it! No wonder…"

"That is quite enough!" The older woman snapped.

"Mom, what is she talking about?" Mahad asked.

"Nothing. It's alright honey," Mila replied, still looking right in Dianne's pale blue eyes. They were so familiar, so similar to that of her own family, she couldn't help but notice. She broke eye contact to glance over to her son "Could you do me a favor and just tell your sister to fetch some of the class objects? I'm teaching as soon as we get home,"

"You sure?" Mahad asked

"Yes, I wish to speak with our guest in private. I'll be fine," When he hesitated she changed her tone to that of an order "Now, Mahad."

"Okay…" he said slowly, walking back up the stairs at an even slower pace. Mila waited until he had closed the door behind him before charging down the remaining few steps and backing the teenager up several paces.

"Who are you and how did you find out?" Mila demanded in a hiss. Dianne started slightly when her back came into contact with a wall.

"It's all over you, even now! You can barely make it across the ship without feeling exhausted, am I right? How do they not _know_? How do they not _notice_? Do you ever actually tell them or does it just take them months to figure it out?" the teenager demanded, her tone an odd mixture of anger, indignation and despair. The older woman frowned slightly in confusion at the tense that she was using but decided to focus on a more important subject than grammar. She was far more interested in the knowledge she seemed to have. Her gaze also travelled to the girl's neck; the collar of her coat had shifted on one side to allow a peak of the pulsating blue glow to show.

"What's this?" she inquired, hesitantly reaching out to pull back the material of the coat. The teenager's gloved hand snapped up to her wrist in a grip that, while not harmful, was nevertheless powerful and promised the ability to at least bruise should she choose. Mila was a little taken aback at this reaction, though on second reflection given her aggressiveness moments before it was hardly unfounded, she supposed, and she softened accordingly. The poor thing looked suddenly terrified.

"Don't," she said quietly

"I'm not going to hurt you," Mila told her,

"I know but…don't." Dianne stated, edging to the side in order to circle around the older woman. She released her wrist only when she was a pace and a half away so that the older seijinn wouldn't easily grab at her again. She grasped the collar of her coat and pulled it up with a snap to better conceal her neck; the fact that it also concealed the inner fabric of the coat and what might or might not be sewn in there was purely coincidental, of course. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against one of the large barrels of fuel, facing her companion. Mila sighed and swallowed as she chose her words carefully. Before she could speak, however, the teenager was asking her questions again, her voice quiet and almost choked.

"Why don't they know?" she whispered again, sounding as though she were almost in tears "It's not fair, why won't you tell them?"

There was no use lying. She knew and Mila was well aware of said knowledge. There was no point in insulting the girl's intelligence. She therefore didn't waste her time in doing so and instead asked,

"How are you able to tell?"

"It's all _over_ you!" Dianne exclaimed, her hands flying out and shooting up and down to indicate the older woman in general, apparent horror written across her expression as she stammered out her attempt at an explanation. She buried her fingers in her hair and started to pace.

"Your energy is all…_wrong_! It's your…it's you but it's not you it's…how does that _girl_ call herself your daughter and not **_notice_**?! I can't believe not even Da—" she cut herself off and took a long, deep breath through her nose "I find it hard to believe that no one has seen the signs. You're going to try and tell me that no one has said anything?"

"A friend of mine is…aware of it," Mila admitted. Dianne blinked and then scoffed at some private joke apparently.

"Course he is," she muttered

"Pardon?"

"Nothing," she said quickly. The elder of the two seijinns raised an eyebrow but didn't press the matter.

"Well," Mila remarked "You have me at a disadvantage it seems,"

"Bu-but you never answered my question…"

"…as I was saying earlier, it takes a lot to surprise or unnerve this crew when it comes to seijinn power after spending a year with my daughter. So, who are you and why are you here?"

Dianne seemed to deflate, looking decidedly uncomfortable again.

"I'm running from the Sphere, like everyone always is and…and I don't have anywhere else to go. But I can help. Trust me when I say that no one wants to bring Oslo down more than I do," she whispered, slowly looking up to meet the other seijinn's eye. Her admission had started out vulnerably, but the moment that Oslo's name was mentioned her tone darkened and her gaze hardened. She wasn't done, however. She straightened and squared her shoulders unconsciously as she declared "And know that I will kill that Leech before I let him hurt you again, that I am more than willing to die before I let him hurt _any_ of you ever again,"

The ferocity with which she made that statement took Mila by surprise. It unsettled her. She couldn't help but wonder how much anger and despair this young woman must harbour to be willing to kill and die for strangers if only it meant that she could bring this man down. The elder seijinn could understand such passion; she had seen it in many of the rebels and held such intense emotions herself, but she knew where hers came from and could usually pick up a general idea of that which fueled those around her. The mystery surrounding this newcomer, however, had the potential to be dangerous. Mila couldn't pick up anything from this seijinn and ran into nothing but telepathic walls the likes of which she had never encountered before. What did escape was also strange and unnerving; it was aggressive, angry and eager for a fight. Yet at the same time her expression seemed to be as vulnerable and open as her mind was so adamantly closed. It made Mila suspicious of her, but at the same time there was something about the girl…something _familiar_…

Without another word Mila turned and started to climb the stairs again. Dianne blinked, taking a step forward in confusion.

"Wait! Where are you going?" she demanded, just stopping herself in time before a different name from "Mila" escaped her lips. The door closed behind the woman in question, leaving the teenager alone with nothing but the voice in her ear for company again.

8888888

Dahlia stared at the door to the holding cell, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her jaw set angrily. Kale stood next to her, his grip on his staff tight. Neither said anything to the other. The silence was not comfortable, quite the opposite, but neither was it antagonistic. If anything the pair was commiserating.

"We have to be nuts," Dahlia muttered.

"She's not going anywhere," Kale said, clanging the end of his staff on the floor menacingly. He, too, was staring intently at the door. He reached for his belt with one hand subconsciously where his canister of exelerium was clipped. "She comes out here, we'll be ready. Though if she's smart, she'll stay right where she is,"

"She got out of there once," the blonde pointed out.

"Yeah, well that didn't really work out too well for her," the ex-Gladiator remarked, "I know if I was her I wouldn't want to come up against you again after what happened last time,"

"Don't remind me," Dahlia muttered, turning her de-activated energy bow over in her hands absent-mindedly. She sighed and leaned her head back against the wall, glancing over at her friend "So how are you holding up?"

Kale shrugged.

"Fine," he said "If you're talking about Di Wan, well I'm not happy about it either."

"It _is_ the mother of all bad ideas, but I wasn't actually talking about her," Dahlia remarked, eyeing the purpling mark down one side of his face and the split lip. He assuredly had other such angry marks underneath his long-sleeved shirt, but he wasn't complaining about any of them and wasn't sharing them either. The bruises were the reason she was on guard duty with him. They were fairly certain he didn't have a concussion and Kale himself was shrugging it off by insisting that he'd suffered much worse as a gladiator. They didn't doubt it, but still wanted to be certain that their friend was alright. As such they didn't stop him from going about his job, provided that he had a buddy with him for a day or two, just to be sure. They intended to have the Vector look him over as well when they got back within the hour, even if only for the one thing he would admit to: a buzzing in his right ear. Once again the Gladiator shrugged.

"I keep telling you guys, its _fine_!" he growled in exasperation "First Mahad, now you…I have to admit though, it might have gone differently if that other girl hadn't been here."

"What? That Dianne kid?"

"Yeah. She'd have done well in the arena if they put seijinns in there. She's tough. Took down a guy who had at least 50 pounds on _me _in about thirty seconds. Vicious too. Really smacked them around before sending them flying and she seemed to be enjoying it," the Gladiator remarked. He shrugged as he remembered another thought "Still, it _was_ a good thing for me and Cheng that she showed. Those guys were good. They were trained, and not just in a gladiator ring, though I'd bet a ship at least one of them was an arena vet."

"A guy with 50 pounds on _you_ in thirty seconds?" Dahlia asked incredulously.

"Yeah, it was kinda weird. Her eyes were glowing and she had this…_look_ on her face. Think she used her powers to amp up her strength but she could probably hold her own without them. Someone taught her how to fight and they did a good job,"

"Well, she's not telling us anything," Dahlia remarked. "But after all that went down at Oxford I'm pretty sure we can trust her,"

"My mom thinks so too," Mahad said as he came around the corner. He had his hands in the pockets of his father's coat.

"Hey man, are you really going to start wearing that all the time?" Kale laughed

"I don't know, I think it suits me. Don't you agree, Dahlia?" The pilot asked, waggling his eyebrows at her suggestively as he leaned in towards her. The blonde rolled her eyes and covered a portion of his face with her hand, pushing him away in slow motion, though a small smile was tugging at the corner of her mouth as she did so. Mahad chuckled as well before sobering somewhat again. He jerked his thumb in the direction of the door.

"I'm here to relieve you. We're nearly there," he said.

"Okay, be careful though," Kale said as he straightened from the wall.

"Don't worry. No one's getting past me or my name isn't Mahad Farrell!"

"Since when is it Mahad _Farrell_?" Dahlia asked him

"It is! Hey, Farrell was my dad's last name so I might as well use it. I'm his son and proud of it! It's cool to have a surname. Besides, it's in my jacket," he said smugly, pulling the collar out to show them the stitching of 'MF' on the inside. Dahlia shook her head but Kale just shrugged.

"Hey, fair enough. If we had last names we'd probably use them too. Later Farrell," he said, clapping the pilot on the shoulder as he walked past. Dahlia followed him, though she punched Mahad in the arm playfully.

"Hope you don't expect me to start calling you 'Farrell'," she told him good-naturedly.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he told her before sobering. He nodded in the direction of the door. "You ready for this?"

The smile fell from her face as she followed his gaze back to the hunk of metal that she and Kale had spent the last couple of hours staring at as they chatted. She nodded.

"Did you um…hear?" Mahad asked awkwardly.

"They've made a mistake, okay?" Dahlia half-snapped, her hands coming up in a stopping motion as she took a defensive half-step back, subconsciously distancing herself from even the idea.

"Dahlia…"

"Mahad, don't go there. I know what you're going to try and tell me but she's not my sister. It's not like this is you and Lena. This is _Di Wan_,"

"Okay…so why have you decided to see her?" he asked, a little confused. The blonde shook her head and didn't meet his gaze readily.

"It's…complicated," Dahlia said. Since her fight with Di Wan several months ago she had replayed the scene over and over again, both awake and asleep. She didn't know why that particular death had affected her in quite that manner. She had seen plenty of people die, she had even killed some. It came with the territory of being a rebel; sometimes it was kill or be killed. She never liked it; she always regretted taking a life and hated it even more when she failed to save someone. Di Wan had been her enemy and she had been willing to do whatever it took to prevent her from hurting the other members of the rebellion, but she had also tried—and failed—to save her. It was a weird combination of guilt that had followed the incident. She needed to put it behind her.

"Why don't…" Mahad started, chickening out halfway through his offer. The blonde blinked at him and he cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably as he started again "Erhm…why don't I go with you?"

"I'm okay Mahad, I can handle myself," Dahlia said gently.

"Oh no, I know you don't need me there…I just wondered if you might, you know, _want_ me—or just someone in general! It doesn't have to be me, or anything but just…you know someone to go with you…never mind," he stammered awkwardly, looking away at a point in the corner to try and hide the flush creeping up his face. Dahlia was taken aback a little, but was touched. She was also at a bit of a loss. There was an awkward stretch of silence where she opened and closed her mouth a few times before finally finding her mouth again.

"Mahad I…Thank you. But…Alice is already coming to see if she's telling the truth,"

Mahad's back-peddling was so fast it was almost amusing.

"No, of course! Right, right of course…forget I said anything. I'll just um…wait out…here…that was stupid,"

"But…" Dahlia began as he turned away from her. He stopped and whipped his head around, his bright blue eyes meeting her brown ones. His expression was oddly vulnerable as she continued hesitatingly "Maybe, I don't know, maybe…next time?"

This time it was Mahad who blinked, his face slowly brightening as he nodded enthusiastically. The corners of Dahlia's mouth twitched at him in a half-smile as Alice approached with Wayan. The blonde quickly motioned to her and opened the door to slip inside before the pilot could ruin the moment with anything 'flirty'.

"You know, you might get further with her if you keep to stuff like that," a familiar voice said from a little way down the hall. The pilot turned to see Wayan leaning against the wall by his shoulder casually.

"Huh?"

"When you're trying to be cool she thinks that you're just fooling around. When you're being sincere she notices,"

"You think?" Mahad asked.

"Listen Mahad," Wayan said as he put a hand on Mahad's shoulder as he imparted this wisdom "I've known her for over a decade and lived with her for years. I don't 'think' so, I _know_ so,"

Mahad looked him in the eye and nodded in agreement, a small, pensive smile spreading across his face.

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Mila's approach was a quiet one, but one that Cortez heard nevertheless from his position at the wheel. She came up the steps and stood beside him, looking out through the window at the clouds in front of the ship.

"Well?" he asked.

"There's something about her. Something…not right. I can't tell much about her apart from the fact that she knows far more than she should and has a lot of anger and despair,"

"Aye, ye don't need to be a seijinn to see that," Cortez said. "I need to know if we can trust her,"

"Well, she has no love for the Sphere. 'My enemy's enemy,' and all that," Mila said with a sigh.

"But can we risk a time bomb like that?" the Captain pointed out. His old friend shook her head slowly.

"I don't know," she admitted darkly. After a moment she sighed and shrugged "But can we risk her falling into Sphere hands? I don't like to think what Oslo would do to her to harness the kind of power you described to me, or what he would do with it once he had it. I don't think we have much choice but to extend our protection to her,"

The captain huffed slightly, deep in thought. He knew that she was right. The same thought had already crossed his mind. He stared resolutely at the sky ahead of him and nodded once in assent.

"Let the Vector know so he can find somewhere to put her," he said. Mila nodded and turned away, heading for the communications' station. Cortez continued to look ahead, hoping that he had made the right decision.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: Nope...still not mine. Shame. I'd still air the show if it were mine. **

**Chapter 12**

**Future**

"I have to say, this was either the single most insane idea I have ever seen anyone come up with, or the most ingenious," Alice said slowly. She and her "dead" companion were both holding tight to a decrepit speeder beneath the rock face that made up the underside of the block. The escapee looked up and squinted in the fading sunlight.

"It's funny how often those two things seem to go together, isn't it?" she remarked, searching the sky above for signs that they had been discovered. There were none.

"Either way, this one is in a class of its own," The former guardian insisted

"Did the dummy give you any trouble?"

"Not really. All brown cloaks look the same. So do the oversized clothes and gloves. It looked okay from here so all we really need to worry about is that creep we got that doll thing from talking to Oslo and I highly doubt that will happen,"

"Good,"

"So now what?" Alice asked.

"We hope that they fell for it and try to beat them to where Lena and the Vector are hiding. They must be at the Lighthouse. I just hope we make it in time,"

"I think it's probably safe to leave now. We should get to higher sky before the sun goes down," The redhead fretted. No one on Skyland liked to be at this low an altitude. No one knew what lay beneath the sky anymore but they were fairly certain that the long drop was not likely to have a good outcome.

The escaped prisoner nodded and Alice felt her companion's arms reflexively tense around her middle ever so slightly as they angled upwards and shot into the cloud cover. Both women shuddered and tensed up at the cold and squinted through the fog. The Rebel craned her neck over the redhead's shoulder as she peered at their misty surroundings for signs of the debris field she vaguely knew about. She and her daughter had not stayed at the lighthouse when they had been together and she had, in fact, instructed her daughter to have at least one place to run that her mother did not know about in the event of her capture. She had been glad of that plan during her capture but was now starting to regret it. Lena had to be at the lighthouse with the Vector. It was the only explanation…

The debris field gave them a great deal of trouble. There seemed to be a lot more than either of them remembered, though that might not have been entirely coincidental. It certainly made it difficult to navigate, though they supposed that was likely the point. Twice the two women had to reach out a leg to push away from a section of rock and there were several instances where they had to duck their heads to avoid a potential concussion.

"At least we know that Oslo hasn't gotten here. There's no way a patroller would be able to navigate this,"

"Not…necessarily," Alice said slowly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Oslo could have moved the debris if he wanted to. It wouldn't even deplete him that much if he had drained someone beforehand. And…I'm pretty sure he had someone on his ship waiting in a light chamber," the former guardian told her haltingly, reluctant to tell her such a horrible thing. It had been bad enough to pick up the stray thought about the madman's latest victim. She felt the woman behind her stiffen.

"He won't get her," she said stubbornly while shaking her head, more desperate to convince herself than anyone else really. "If he corners her he'll be biting off more than even he can chew! There's no way he'll get…her… …"

Alice pulled the speeder to a halt as both of their mouths dropped and eyes went wide with dismay.

"What _is_ that?" Alice breathed in absolute horror.

Hanging over the lighthouse was an ominous swirl of what looked like blue, black and purple clouds spinning like whirlpools did in old pictures from books. In the centre of this anomaly was a long beam of light that seemed to be creating it, a beam of light being shot straight through what looked to be a newly-created hole in the roof of the lighthouse. The small armada of ships that Oslo had brought with him appeared to be standing in wait until the Command ship—a strange design that was in a crescent shape with some sort of spinning ball in the middle that now served as Oslo's main vessel—charted a course for the swirl. The two women watched with jaws dropped as first the flag ship and then four more of the patrollers slowly move into the void and disappeared. Alice cried out in alarm at this and accidently pulled the speeder backwards, feeling her companion's arms instinctively tighten around her middle before she quickly recovered and fixed the position of the speeder.

"Careful!"

"Sorry," Alice murmured, obviously shaken by the sight before repeating "What _is_ that?"

"I doubt it's anything good. I need to find Lena!" the escapee said desperately. Alice obliged readily and the pair sped around the remaining debris obstacles to park right in front of another speeder, jumping off their own vehicle in a rush, the guardian one step behind the scared, border-line frantic mother.

The moment they opened the door, however, they came face to face with a pair of guardians. Poe and his apprentice, it seemed, had been selected to stay behind whilst the rest of their attack force went through whatever it was that had taken over the sky immediately surrounding the lighthouse. Neither women were to be stopped, however. Lena's mother snatched out the small blaster that had been attached to the belt of the clothes set that Alice gave her and the redhead's hands started to glow intensely.

"You're supposed to be dead!" Poe exclaimed, though to which of them he referred the two women weren't quite sure. Not that it mattered, really.

"_Move_," The mother said, her tone dangerous.

"I recommend that you do as she says," Alice told them.

"And the _traitor_ surfaces again," Poe's Apprentice said mockingly "Well isn't thi—aahhh!"

The woman was cut off by a particularly potent seijinn blast which knocked her off her feet. She cried out in a prolonged, breathless whimper after she hit the ground, her back arching a little as her previous injuries were aggravated. Neither newcomer noticed this, however, and before Poe knew it he was deflecting yellow spurts from a blaster and was caught off guard by Alice quickly. He, too, took a long time to recover, prompting the rebel pair to take a closer look at their opponents.

"What was it your little friend called Alice? A traitor? That's a little rich, coming from you, Poe,"

"It's alright, it's not like he's that 'Prat' fellow or whatever his name was. Let it go," Alice told her even as she kept on eye on the Apprentice. Both Guardians were riddled with nasty bruises and looked to have a couple more coming up. At least one of the blood vessels in the man's eye had burst as well and both he and his younger student sported uniforms that were ever so slightly singed…the pieces were all there and the assembly was quick when both women exchanged a glance and then turned towards the window where the sickly purple and read light shimmered outside. It wasn't difficult to guess what had happened to them.

"I guess you two bit off a little more than you could chew, cornering the _Phoenix_…She must have gone through that thing…" Alice started, turning her attention away from the two seijinns and towards the window.

"And now they're going after her…Great Skyland…Lena what have you done?" the girl's mother breathed rhetorically. Just then there was a creaking sound above them.

"It's sounds like someone is still here," The redhead said. She looked at her companion. "I'll take care of these two, you go,"

She didn't need telling twice and was stepping over the two guardians and up the stairs like a shot, her blaster out and ready as she climbed the stairs, noticing that the ladder to the attic was already down. Just before she reached it she stepped on something that beeped and recoiled her foot, pausing to stoop down and pick up the hand-held piece of equipment. The device was clearly broken, but continued to flash its final readings. She knew them all too well; they were her daughters.

"Oh Lena…" she whispered, surveying the damage again briefly before mounting the ladder, her eyes peeled for any sign of danger. She was ready for almost anything, prepared even for another confrontation with Oslo. What she found, however, was something else entirely. The place was a mess, as she had expected, with signs of looting, but there was a figure crumpled in one corner with white hair peeking out from under the ragged cloth.

"Vector!"

The old man looked up at her cry and stared at her for a moment in shock before calling out her name in response as he again tried to get up from his position sprawled on the floor. He let out a pitiful moan when he did so which prompted the woman to run to his side and kneel to help him at least rise to a sitting position. His nose was bleeding and there was a trail of crusted blood leading from one ear, making it rather easy to guess who had handled his interrogation, and his clothes were rumpled from being shoved around. The old man leaned heavily against her and seemed to have been severely weakened. He called her name again

"Is it…really you?" he asked almost pitifully, a drop of blood sliding down the side of his face as he said it.

"Are you alright?" she asked him

"Ohhh…Eventually I think I might be…but you're alive! Lena will be so—Oh my! _Lena_!" the old man exclaimed, suddenly remembering the events of the past few hours. His expression quickly became sheepish as he realized who he was talking to and saw her expression; now that she knew he was at the least not in immediate danger, she was livid.

"The one thing I made very clear should she ever find you…" she began angrily even as she helped him to his feet.

"I know, I know, but there was little choice! She knew that Oslo was on his way somehow, she must have sensed it. You and I both know that she would rather die than be captured by him," the old man said almost pleadingly

"And she might just do that now! Urgh! I should have known that she'd try and pull something like this!"

"She has too much of her father in her," The Vector said.

"Not even her father would be so melodramatic and foolhardy! And he was definitely never self-destructive!" his friend snapped. Just then there was an almighty crack outside the lighthouse and a blinding flash through the small window that forced both of them to throw an arm across their faces with a cry.

"What's happening?" Lena's mother asked

"It's the rift! My machine wasn't designed to send so much through time! It's going to collapse—what are you doing?" he asked as his companion suddenly dove for a box of supplies and started to rummage through them, discarding whatever failed to be exactly what she was seeking.

"Will it take one more?" she demanded

"It should…but—"

"Is there any way to get back?"

"Why?" The Vector asked, well aware that the question was redundant and pointless. They both knew why she had asked. She answered him anyway.

"I'm going after her,"

**Year 2252**

"So…This place jog any memories?" Dahlia demanded as she and Alice closed the door behind them and walked into the windowless, dimly lit room. For security purposes they had sealed this room off from any and all sunlight and kept it very dimly lit. As it was they could only vaguely make out the outlines of the other people in the room. Di Wan was sitting on the hard little bench attached to the wall. She looked up at the sound of the other woman's voice and stood slowly, looking from Dahlia to Alice and then back again.

"All too well," Di Wan informed her wryly. She looked around the darkened confines briefly. When her gaze travelled back to Dahlia she noticed the enshrouded figure standing behind her. Di Wan jerked her head in the direction of the mystery figure.

"Who's this, then?" she asked with a sigh as she slouched with her elbows on her knees. One hand went to her side as a brief ache pulled through a half-healed wound. The dark did little to aid her recovery.

"None of your concern," Dahlia informed her coldly. Di Wan rolled her eyes and glanced away. Alice was staying heavily shadowed to keep her identity as confidential as possible. She was not going to speak. It was too dark for either of their powers to work, and too dark for Di Wan to sense her. Alice's senses were, themselves, muted. Her gifts allowed a certain level of her telepathy to continue functioning for a short time without light. This resilience wasn't indefinite and she still required light for the full scope of her abilities, but she had been able to stretch her empathic 'stores' for nearly an hour in the past. If she were concentrating and looking for it, she should be able to determine whether or not her former boss was telling the truth. She also was able to observe the interview as what was perhaps the closest this block would get to an impartial observer of this interview. Wayan might have been able to reach a similar level of objectivity given his reasonable nature, but even he had only ever seen the negative side of the Guardian. For a brief time Alice had been beholden to Di Wan.

Dahlia crossed her arms over her chest and took another step towards her, but only one step.

"So," Dahlia said.

"So," Di Wan responded. The two looked long and hard at each other. There was so much to say and yet, neither wanted to start that conversation. After a tense few moments.

"I hear that I owe you my life," she said. "Little value though it may hold right now, I am still…grateful,"

"You're welcome," Dahlia said curtly. "So. Oxford,"

"What about it?" Di Wan asked.

"What were you doing there?"

"Trying to not to die, if possible," Di Wan retorted wryly. She snorted "Good Skyland, I sound like those mouthy brats,"

"You might want to watch what you say about those 'mouthy brats' around here," Dahlia reminded her. Di Wan looked ready to spout some kind of insult or order but visibly reigned herself in…with difficulty.

"I…apologize," she said through gritted teeth. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "What are you planning to do with me? Am I to be your excelerium experiment again?"

"If you try to attack us, yes. We have Kale outside the door with a canister and he's itching to use it. He might not kill you if you try to fight him without powers,"

Di Wan let out a sharp, hard laugh.

"And what would I fight him _for_?" She demanded imperiously "Escape? I've nowhere to go except perhaps Oxford, and quite clearly they're willing to turn me over to you. That large, black rebel is right, you know. I can't go home. I didn't report back immediately after regaining my memory. I'm now a deserter. I have no more favors or advantageous friends even if I wanted to go back,"

"And you really want us to believe that you don't want to go back any more?" Dahlia asked, disbelief heavy in her tone. Di Wan glowered at her a moment before getting to her feet slowly and painstakingly. She winced at every other motion but stood and limped towards one of the other walls in the cell.

"I don't care what the rebel sc—what the rebels think," She said, catching and correcting herself. "Don't try to hurt me and I won't fight you. I'd rather not have my neck snapped by a gladiator and I don't fancy excelerium,"

"Oh please," Dahlia scoffed. "We know you, Di Wan. You'll pull something,"

"I doubt it," The Guardian insisted, clearly annoyed. "I had power before. I could back up threats that I made. Now, I can barely walk and aside from my powers—which both of your seijinns have bested before—I am powerless. So. What will you do with me?"

There was another silence.

"We haven't decided yet," Dahlia replied "It will depend on how you plan to cooperate,"

Di Wan sighed again.

"I will cooperate," she told her "Will that keep me alive?"

"Yes," Dahlia stated carefully. The two stared each other down again, moving into yet another tense, awkward silence. The rebel shifted her weight from one foot to the other and Di Wan fidgeted with discomfort, but neither was willing to break eye contact. What started as a silent struggle for dominance, however, started to shift into something else. The former Guardian's face softened.

"I see it now," Di Wan said. "I don't know how I didn't before. You look like her,"

"Don't go there," Dahlia warned.

"And why not?" the former Guardian asked. Dahlia didn't have an answer. They both knew it. Instead she went on the offensive.

"Why were you spinning that tale at Oxford?"

"At first it wasn't a tale," she replied with a shrug. "I couldn't remember anything. Then it started to come back. The house, the school, Victoria, my mother my…a lot came back. But with those memories came others. I didn't tell them about the other memories,"

"You expect me to believe that you used to be Wanda and you never once went back home?" Dahlia demanded.

"It seems _you_ never did," Di Wan pointed out. "You even sound different. What happened to your accent?"

"I moved away and got a new one," Dahlia informed her testily. "What happened to your sense of right and wrong?"

"I moved away and got a new one," Di Wan snapped back as snidely. The two still stared each other down, searching one another's face. They had moved closer to one another as they traded verbal swipes the way they had traded physical blows months ago. They now stood barely a foot apart. In the end, it was Dahlia who broke the eye contact first as she turned away.

"You're not my sister," she stated coldly as she headed for the door. "You're a lying Guardian,"

"So then why try to save me?" Di Wan called after her, halting the blonde in her tracks. "When we fought months ago. When I was hanging off the belly of your ship, why did you try to take my hand? I was just a lying Guardian you hated. Why did you try to save me?" Alice looked from Dahlia's face to Di Wan's and then back again during the heavy silence. The air was thick enough to cut with a knife. When the rebel looked back over her shoulder disgust and anger were etched into her glare.

"Because I am not like you," Dahlia said slowly, her quiet words seeming to echo in the chamber. "I don't care what you say you remember or what lies you told a lonely, guilty professor who missed her best friend. You've not said a thing to make me think you aren't lying through your teeth,"

Dahlia strode to the door with clenched fists. She brought her hand up to bang the series of knocks which would signal them to open the door. On the other side Kale and Mahad would both be waiting with Excelerium charged weapons.

"Daffy Dahli," Di Wan said just before Dahlia's knuckles touched the metal. Dahlia didn't turn around.

"Anyone could have told you that nickname," she almost growled.

"In our house," Di Wan continued unphased, "There was a small wooden box with blue and black roses painted on the side. Inside was the necklace that mummy made by putting her gold chain through father's old ring. She showed it to us when we were little. It was the family secret. There was a lock on the box with a dragon engraving. Mummy had the key inside a locket that she either wore or kept in another locked box,"

Dahlia was glad of the darkness that surrounded her which hid her expression even from Alice, not that there was much point in trying to hide much from Alice: she had only improved and honed her empathic abilities since their first encounter with her. The blonde opened and then closed her mouth silently before knocking on the door and leaving the room with Alice on her heels. She paused only briefly to shake her head once at Mahad and Wayan, determined not to let it show how she had been unnerved.

"Waste of time," she told them "I'm gonna go back to bridge. You guys okay down here?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine. You okay?" Mahad asked. The blonde rolled her eyes.

"Yes," she said firmly, her hands coming down on her hips to emphasize her point, making it clear that she was getting very tired of being asked that question. "I don't care if she's related to me or not. They'll get the DNA tests back and that will be that. It's not as though it changes anything. She's still _Di Wan_. Now I'm going to go back to the bridge. Alice, are you coming?"

"I'll be there in a minute," the redhead said, hanging back a bit. Dahlia shrugged nonchalantly and headed back for the bridge.

"What do you think?" Wayan asked Alice once their blonde friend was out of earshot.

"Di Wan said something that really seemed to get to her," The seijinn replied. "Something about a box…I don't know. She has a good mental barrier, your friend."

"Yeah, well, after what happened with Oslo during the Perihelia she started working with the Vector and Lena. Can't blame her, either." The pilot told Alice. The redhead nodded in approval

"It shows. But some emotion did slip through the cracks. As for Di Wan…well. Unless she's advanced her telepathy by leaps and bounds since I last saw her…" The Guardian shrugged and shook her head at the same time "She's not lying. Not that I can tell, anyway. My recommendation is that we find somewhere to drop her off. Perhaps Aida would help,"

"Aida…?" Mahad trailed off.

"That kid Spencer's mom. She and her neighbor are both seijinns and the Sphere seems to leave them alone. They'd be able to keep her there and hidden," Wayan told him before turning to Alice and nodding in agreement "It's a good idea and their block's on our way home. I'll pitch it to the captain with you,"

"Thank you," The Guardian said with a nod. She then turned to Mahad and reached into a cleverly concealed pocket, withdrawing a meticulously folded piece of paper and handing it to him. The pilot accepted the flimsy blue square with an inquisitive tilt of his head.

"What's this?" He asked as he started to unfold it. His eyes bulged with excitement and he held it out a little farther as he perked up. "Are these what I think they are?"

"I have a friend who works in a department that was able to make copies. I hear you're trying to build another ship. I thought these might help,"

The pilot let out an exuberant laugh and did a strange little trot-like jump in the air with excitement as he stared at the specs with eyes that lit up enthusiastically. He laughed again and flipped through the pages. Wayan couldn't help but grin at his obvious elation.

"Guess I'm on my own for guard duty then. Good thing we decided to work in pairs!'

"…So that's how they got the port engine gears to fit in properly! Man, this is genius! I hadn't seen that before!"

Alice and Wayan both smirked and had to suppress a chuckle at their friend's child-like wonder and enthusiasm. The dark-skinned pirate shook his head and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. He kept a casual and well-experienced eye on the door even while he watched his younger friend's eyes light up as he scanned the pages over and over again. He chuckled once and shook his head fondly.

"Guess I'm on guard duty on my own," he joked.

"Sorry," Alice replied. He wasn't entirely sure if she knew that he was joking. He smiled.

"Thanks. This is just going to make his week," Wayan told her. A small smile graced the Guardian's solemn face and she nodded. It was difficult to tell, but he almost thought that her cheeks might have coloured a little. She cleared her throat and straightened her back, clasping her hands behind her back in the now-habitual manner that Guardians were taught to hold their hands from early on in their training. She shifted her weight slightly

"Well, if there's ever anything else you need, just—erhm—let me know," Alice said, not quite stammering. She managed a half-smile and nodded at him before following where Dahlia had headed off to. The rebel watched her go for a brief moment and huffed slightly, pleasantly surprised at her reaction…and surprised at himself for lingering on it. He shrugged at set himself back to guard duty.

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Spencer's mother, Aida, and her neighbor had a few reservations, but nevertheless agreed to guard and house Di Wan.

"We really appreciate this, thank you," Mila told the grey-haired woman. Both she, and her large but amiable neighbor and fellow seijinn (also a previous victim of Shinsiki) had willingly agreed to guard and house the rather dangerous individual.

"Think nothing of it," The middle-aged woman said with a wave of her hand. She smiled when Mahad and Lena walked over to them "Don't think that either of us has forgotten how you saved us from that madwoman and brought us back to our children,"

"It was no big deal!" Mahad said with an over-exaggerated wave of his hand and a tone of false modesty "It was just a careen around some crazy moving blocks that tried to turn us into mush and a Guardian more psycho than usual and an exploding block and…hey! I guess it was a big deal!"

"Mahad!" Lena exclaimed as she elbowed his ribs hard. He cried out with a slight laugh and crouched over with one hand lightly clutching the area she'd elbowed him dramatically. The exchange prompted the adults to shake their heads and chuckle indulgently at the siblings' antics.

"Where's your friend? The one that helped you rescue us? She was a brave girl to challenge Shinsiki the way she did, even without being a seijinn,"

"That's never stopped Dahlia before!" Mahad said proudly "She even beat Oslo once!"

"Oslo?!" Spencer's mother exclaimed, simultaneously alarmed and impressed.

"From what I hear it's a fascinating, if somewhat extensive, story," Mila supplied.

"A story that was not fun to live through, I can tell you that much," The young woman in question quipped as she stepped down the ramp. She nodded to Spencer's mother and shook the neighbors hand briefly.

"Are you two sure you're okay with this?" she asked as Kale came down the ramp next. In one hand he had a rifle loaded with excelerium and with the other hand he dragged Di Wan along be the arm. Her wrists were fastened behind her with handcuffs. The Guardian was unimpressed but did little aside from roll her eyes as she stumbled along

"Between the two of us we should be able to handle her," Wayan assured them. Dahlia glanced over his shoulder to see Di Wan and Kale approaching. The former guardian caught her watching and held her gaze. The blonde stared back for a few seconds and then went back to ignoring her. Di Wan herself sighed.

"Am I going to be in these the entire time?" Di Wan drawled, shrugging to the left to indicate her bonds.

"No," Aida said simply. Her neighbor stepped forward and nodded once to Kale. The Gladiator glared at the former Guardian and practically snatched his hand away. Di Wan flexed her arm to get the circulation going a little better again and offered her hands to the stranger behind her. Aida continued to talk to her

"You are our guest here. I should warn you, however, that both of us happen to be very capable seijinns. If you try anything—"

"Yes, I'm getting the message," Di Wan snapped as she rubbed her wrists. The handcuffs had chafed. "I will not attack you or try to contact the Sphere. I assure you; at this point there's not likely anything for me to go back _to_. Not if _Jeloah_ has taken my former position," she spat the name out with disdain.

The rebels were uneasy about the affair, but a brief nod to them from their allies.

"If you have any trouble just let us know," Dahlia said shortly before turning her attention to her crew mates. "C'mon, we have to get going," she said shortly.

"Alright, we're coming," Lena said. They wrapped things up quite quickly and went back to the ship, Mila's arm around her daughter's shoulders protectively as they walked behind Mahad and Dahlia, the former having hurried his step to fall in line with the blonde. The middle-aged woman waved to them briefly when the young seijinn girl glanced over her shoulder at them. She echoed Mila's body language when her own child came over with his ball.

"Aren't they staying Mommy? I was going to show them some of my new basketball tricks!" the little boy said

"Perhaps another time, Spencer," His mother said, "Come on, let's go get our guest settled."

"Okay," The little boy said before turning and waving at the woman with the red tattoo. He ran over and grabbed her hand excitedly "Come on, I'll show you the basketball court and we can play a game!"

"That sounds lovely," Di Wan said distantly, only a slight edge of sarcasm to her tone. She stood stiffly, her hand rigid in his smaller one, but she didn't pull away or snap at him. She even started to limp mechanically along with him, though she slowed to a stop to watch the Saint Nazaire go as they pulled away from the block. She was so distracted at first that she didn't hear her new jailers asking her a question until it was repeated twice.

"I'm sorry," she said as she shook her head a little to clear it and looked at the boy's mother "What did you say?"

"I was asking what you wanted us to call you. We can't exactly go around shouting Di Wan— we'll have the Sphere here in minutes,"

"Of course," Di Wan agreed.

"What did they call you at the last place? Jane? Would you prefer that?"

"No," Di Wan shook her head. She glanced over to where the St. Nazaire was shrinking into the horizon. Her brown eyes took on a distant look and she didn't answer them for several long moments. They didn't push her; both of the adults could see the internal struggle.

"I suppose if I can't be Di Wan anymore," she began slowly "Then my name might as well be Wanda, now,"

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Dianne jerked awake when the ship lurched slightly as they docked and jumped, her hands slapping the ground a little as she looked around wildly, disoriented for a moment. She closed her eyes and groaned in relief that she had woken up in the same spot that she had dozed off. It wasn't always a guarantee. The teenager sighed and hung her head so that she could rub the back of her neck, wincing slightly at the crick there before jerking her head to the side with a rather satisfying crackle and a wave of relief down the muscles there. The floor was hard and the barrel that she had been leaning against curved just enough to make it an uneven surface for resting against. She got to her feet and stretched out her arms and then arched backwards until she both heard and felt another crackle and started rolling her shoulders as she looked around, trying to gage how long she had napped and where they were.

The sound of the door creaking open made Dianne whip around with a slight intake of breath, her messy braid swishing through the air to land over her shoulder, her muscles tensed. Said tension released quickly when Wayan entered. She still had to do a double take, even with full knowledge of her surroundings. He just looked so…_young_. She had to catch herself and look away to keep from staring as she regularly did with everyone that she encountered.

"We're here. I volunteered to take you to the Vector,"

Dianne perked at that name.

"The Vector?" she repeated.

"You've heard of him?" Wayan asked.

"Uh…yeah! Of course! H-hasn't everyone?" Dianne replied nervously, remembering that here she was "Dianne" not "Lena"; someone who was never supposed to have met the man in question. Wayan laughed at that good-naturedly

"Well I'm sure that he'll be glad to hear it," the rebel chortled.

"Ye-yeah. I mean, who doesn't like a fan club, right?"

"Come on then. I'll take you to him. You'll be staying with him for a few days while we decide where to put you," Wayan said cheerfully as he waved Dianne along. The teenager was slightly hesitant but then jogged up the stairs and followed him down the hallway casually, her hands sliding into the pockets of her long coat. Every once in a while the rebel would catch her staring at him with a rather strange expression on her face, something between awe and melancholy he thought as he led her outside to the docking bay, watching her crane her neck as she took in her surroundings. When they got outside to the block itself, however, she seemed suddenly confused.

"Where are we?" she inquired.

"It's our home block. It's called Peurto Angel—"

"_This_ is _Puerto Angel_?" Dianne asked, mouth agape and eyes wide as she looked around at the cheerful, thriving port, glancing at the children playing hopscotch and the small groups of people walking together and chatting in a friendly manner.

"Yeah, this is Puerto Angel…" Wayan said slowly, eyes narrowing slightly at her odd reaction. He was distracted when a soccer ball came flying at him.

"Look out!" someone called out belatedly as the rebel caught the checkered missile. A little boy with short black hair and a girl with spiky pigtails came running over.

"Sorry Wayan. We lost control of the ball," The little boy said. Dianne peered at him with a frown. He seemed so familiar…

"It's okay Poe. Just try and keep the ball on the ground this time," Wayan said as he tossed it back to the youth. The ball slowed in mid-air and glowed slightly before floating into Poe's hands

"_Poe_?!" Dianne repeated, her eyes flashing seijinn-blue and the veins in her face lighting up momentarily. She yanked the lapels of her coat over her face for a moment and turned away, hunching slightly. The dark skinned rebel blinked and put a hand on her shoulder in alarm

"Are you alright?" he asked. Dianne nodded slowly.

"Yes," she mumbled as she straightened, keeping the lapels of her coat up tight around her face with gloved hands, though some of the pulsating glow to the veins which had started to rise on her face peeked through "Can—um—can we just go to the Lighthouse please?"

"Yeah, sure. The lighthouse is this way," Wayan said as he led her through the streets of the town, a few people stopping to stare including, unfortunately, Prattucci. The black-haired citizen put his fists on his hips and narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the retreating figures with a disapproving "humph" and a remark about "strays".

By the time they reached the hill that led to the Lighthouse the rebels' new guest seemed to relax. Her hands eventually slackened their grip on her jacket and slowly came down altogether and the tension went out of her shoulders. The veins (or muscles or whatever they were) were still raised on her neck but were going down and her face had resumed a normal appearance. When he asked her if she was feeling better she simply nodded and muttered an affirmation, her gaze distant, though her face lit up when they came to the foot of the lighthouse.

Dianne paused at the threshold and looked at the building from tip to base. It was so _white_. The stains and grime that would come to coat it hadn't happened yet evidently and the roof was a cheery red and not missing a single shingle. That would certainly keep it warmer when blizzard-storms hit and only one window had a chip in it. She couldn't help but feel how right it was as part of a larger block instead of being stuck as simply some piece in a debris field.

Wayan noticed her interest in the building, misreading it for curiosity.

"Did any of the other blocks you lived on have lighthouses?" he asked, knowing that the Vector maintained one of the best kept buildings of its kind. He essentially got the answer he expected when she replied

"Yes. But it isn't quite like this…not yet anyway,"

"Well come on in, there's someone I'd like you to meet," Wayan said as he opened the door for her and motioned for her to enter. The teenager nodded to him and smiled in thanks before walking into the building. She felt a pull at her heart and couldn't help but smile as she looked around the large, circular room, a familiar waft of scents filled her nose and she felt at once both as though she had returned home and yet incredibly homesick.

"Vector?" The dark-skinned rebel called. Dianne turned swiftly as she sensed the old man before Wayan did, her blue eyes locking on him as he came over to the railing.

"Ah! Wayan! I see you have brought my new guest," the scientist said cheerily as he walked down the winding metal staircase to meet them with a friendly, open smile. He blinked slightly when he saw the girl, struck by a strange sense of familiarity; she looked so like…well. Perhaps there was a relation. Sometimes in Skyland you simply never knew—after all, neither Marcus nor Mila had ever known much about their families. The Farrell family could have a dozen cousins running around and not know it. Apparently this poor child didn't have a clue either, from what he had been told. Still, the genealogical possibilities were fascinating…

Dianne recognised that look in the Vector's eye; it was like the wheels and gears in his brain went into overdrive sometimes. She wondered but did not seek to peek into what he was thinking; that would simply be bad manners. Nevertheless it filled with a futile sense of relief to see him in one piece—even though _her_ Vector was far from safe. He wouldn't be in the situation in which she'd left him for a very long time.

_He'll **never** be in the situation I left him in,_ She vowed to herself. For once there was no argument from the voice in the back of her head. Instead there was the impression of decisive nod of agreement, which was a relief. Her head was positively aching and she had a feeling that her skin was probably warm to the touch, making a mental note not to let anyone get close enough to notice. The last thing she needed was a physical _here_.

"Welcome," The old man said kindly. "Cortez has arranged for you to stay with m—"

"Vector, its so good to see you in—" she began in hurried relief as she took a few steps towards him before stopping, mentally kicking herself for her stupidity and the words 'one piece' dying on her lips. She swallowed and cleared her throat, her hands sliding into her pockets. Wayan and the Vector were both looking at her strangely.

"I _mean_," she began again with deliberate slowness, a lie quickly coming to mind. "Sorry, I've just heard a lot about you. It's exciting to meet you in person,"

They weren't quite buying it but she couldn't really blame them. Both she and the Phoenix had been glad to see the old man. The honest joy of "their" reunion could cost her the elaborate web of lies she had meticulously crafted. She hated lying to her family though. She was pulled out of her brief twang of guilt by the old man's reaction as he forced another smile onto his face, this one a little forced.

"Well, like I said. You are more than welcome to stay with me. Why don't I give you a tour?" he said.

"Vector, if you don't mind, I told Mahad I'd help him and Cheng with the Mark II today. He's starting work on the engine,"

"Oh yes, by all means," The Vector said with a cheerfully dismissive wave of his hand "That poor boy has been a nuisance without a ship of his own,"

"Thanks," Wayan said before turning to their newest recruit even as he headed for the door "You're in good hands, Dianne,"

"Tell him watch the engine connection," she called after him. He shrugged in acknowledgement and then was outside. Dianne watched the door a moment after he left. Then the Vector got her attention again and began her tour.

Some things were different. She supposed that would be a good thing; it would be a little more credible if she bumped into things or got a little turned around with things. One thing that the teenager felt was tired, however. A familiar, vaguely uncomfortable heat radiated from her skin and her head was starting to pound, though not in a…_dangerous_ way. Thankfully the old man seemed to notice that her energy was starting to ebb and led her up the winding stairway.

"If you would prefer the sofa that would work well but there's also an attic this…" He trailed off as she automatically hopped up and grabbed the hanging cord to pull down the stairs to the room that she had inhabited in her own time.

"…way. Yes, that's right…"

She realized her mistake and scrambled to cover it up

"I…I saw the cord…" she stammered

"No, no, its perfectly alright. That was where I was going to put you anyway. You could stay down here if you like. I have one invention that I was wondering if you'd help me with,"

"Would you mind terribly if I took a nap?" The teenager asked him, her pale blue eyes pleading.

"No, no, of course. You had a trying few days from what I hear. We can ask questions later," he said. The teenager seemed to almost sag with relief.

"Thank you," she whispered as she climbed up the stairs and disappeared into the attic, both the hem of her coat and her dishevelled braid swishing behind her.

The room was strikingly different. If Dianne had been holding anything she would probably have dropped it. None of her personal touches were there of course, but then they wouldn't be. Most of the pictures there wouldn't be taken for a long time yet. The cot was in the same place and the Wardrobe was only slightly more empty without the limited change of clothes that she had in there, though she did feel uneasy knowing that there weren't any of her cooling gel-packets that the Vector had made for her for occasions just like this, though she didn't care that there were no thermometers. She knew when her temperature rose. Like now. She was starting to sweat.

With the privacy allotted by the little room she finally felt safe to take her coat off again and tossed it onto the cot, plonking down on it herself and yanking off her gloves. She felt like a lamp in the dimly lit room, her skin aglow and the raised lines across her skin pulsating in time to her heartbeat. Out of curiosity she yanked the drawer of the small bedside table open and looked in. Her eyes widened in excitement at the sight of the simplest, basest of luxuries.

"A hairbrush!" Dianne whispered, snatching up the object and grinning. She wasted no time in yanking out the tie at the bottom of what remained of her braid and shook it out before raking the brush mercilessly through the tangled, matted mess that had once been her hair. It was a trivial matter, but one that made her feel a little better when she was done. She set the brush back on top of the bedside table and hunched over with a sigh, running her fingers through her now-smooth dark hair, allowing the strands to slowly fall back down to form a curtain that obscured her face as her fingers slid along down her scalp. A tear slowly slid down her cheek, making her feel both angry and stupid. This was what she wanted to do! This was what she had set out to do! Of course it would all be different. She never wanted it to be the way it was, it could never get that way! And yet…

Yet right at that moment she felt so very homesick. The distant familiarity made it worse rather than better. She sniffed and wiped away the tear with the heel of her hand and pulled up her father's coat, rolling it into a pillow for herself as she lay down on her side and curled up.

"I miss you mummy…" she whispered, curling up tighter as she thought of her mother…_her_ mother, and wondered what had happened to her. If Oslo had hurt her like he had hurt so many others. But there was no use wondering, she supposed. It hardened her resolve, thinking of all her family and friends and the drastic differences between their lives now and then…though it should probably be now and later. They would never suffer the way they had in her time if she had anything to do with it, in spite of the thrill of fear for herself that she suddenly felt. She looked at her glowing hand briefly before curling it into a fist on her bundled coat and nuzzled the material. She clutched it, curling around the tough, worn garment and burying her face in it to muffle any sounds she might make as the tears threatened to break past her rigid control in the freedom of solitude and privacy.

Dianne shook. Her heart pounded in her ears as memories of fire and fighting and screaming filled her mind. She curled in on herself tighter, her body shaking with silent sobs as she took in the bare walls and floor and listened to silence punctuated only by crickets at her own shaking breath. Even the Phoenix was quiet. She was glad, but at the same time, she might almost have welcomed a snide but familiar remark to break through the aching, silent solitude that was all too familiar to her by now.


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I don't own Skyland. Oh well. **

**A/N: Usual request: Please review. **

**Chapter 13**

News spread quickly around Puerto Angel once word got out that Oslo was still alive. Lena had been extremely fortunate in that the general assumption was that the would-be dictator had managed to deceive the young girl when he faked his death. Her failure to realize said deception was chalked up to the very forgivable fact that she was barely thirteen years old and had spent the majority of her childhood on a rather sheltered farming block. The young seijinn was also extremely lucky in that those who knew better failed to correct this general misconception. No one particularly wanted Pratucci to find out any different from the generally accepted version, for example.

That didn't mean that they had to be happy about it, though.

Cortez in particular had not been impressed with his young crew member's conduct and he did not keep it a secret. Like his crew he had not contradicted the assumption that Lena had been ignorant of their arch-enemy's survival but he had also spoken no more then was necessary with the girl since the discovery. When he did it was with gruff orders. Lena noticed quickly and began to feel sheepish. The young seijinn didn't particularly like it when the captain was angry with her; she was normally the one mediating between him and her brother and was unaccustomed to being the one on the receiving end of his ire. For the first few days she gave him a wide berth but after they had been back at home for a couple of days she was fetching her mother some baking supplies when she had to pass by Cortez standing at the railing along the outside of the back of the tavern.

"Hi Cortez," she said quietly as she put down the bag of flour and cautiously walked over to rest her arm on the railing that the captain was leaning on. He nodded. She looked down slightly "I guess you're still mad at me,"

Cortez said nothing, but he didn't really have to. Lena looked down and shuffled in place sheepishly. Cortez glanced over at her and sighed.

"Why didn't ye just _tell_ us?" he asked wearily.

"You didn't ask?" she replied, though it sounded more like a question. His raised eyebrow told her that wasn't a good enough answer. She sighed and didn't quite meet his eye when she answered him with a mumble;

"I beat Oslo. I thought that was good enough."

"Well it isn't. You told us that he ended up sandwiched between two of those cubes."

"He did. He just didn't get crushed." She said quietly before adding in a defensive tone, "I didn't lie."

"Ye didn't tell the whole truth, either, Lena," Cortez admonished angrily as he turned to face her "Now he's had months without anyone disturbing him to set whatever plans he has in motion. I don't know what he wants but he has a head start on it,"

The young girl nodded and looked down at her boots, one of which she was scoffing against the floor, the very picture of a guilty child.

"Is there anything else?" the Pirate asked. She nodded again

"Yeah, but this one I didn't tell because I believe him." She replied defensively before recounting what the madman had said about her father.

"I don't believe him, though. If my father were alive, I would know it!" She insisted, her eyes pleading with him to believe her

"Lena, how exactly would you know? You never even knew your father!" Cortez snapped. The young girl flinched at those words. He noticed this and ran a hand down his face wearily, his features and his tone softening as he added "But you're right. He probably was lying."

With that he turned around and walked away. Lena watched him go with her mouth slightly open as though she were going to call after him. She evidently changed her mind and instead bent down to pick up her box of supplies again. The young girl had barely taken a couple of steps, however, when a deep-throated, somewhat malicious chuckle sounded from overhead. She gasped and jumped, whirling around in search of the sound and nearly dropping her box. In recent months she had become unaccustomed to having anyone sneak up on her; her telepathy had been steadily increasing in range and potency to the point where she could sense the presence of even non-seijinns during daylight, even if she couldn't strictly hear their thoughts unless she was focusing. In spite of that, however, she had no idea that the newcomer Dianne was perched on the roof of the tavern overhanging the section where Lena was standing.

"_Wow_," Dianne chuckled to herself as she shook her head. Lena glared at her and the teenager turned slightly to the side to look down at the younger girl with a raised eyebrow. "You actually _believe_ that, don't you? Guess that what makes you such a good liar,"

The young seijinn bridled at the accusation.

"Who in Skyland _are_ you?! And how _dare_ you spy on me and Cortez?" she exclaimed indignantly, seething at both the audacity of the stranger's intrusion and the fact that her mental shields were so good that Lena had failed to sense her presence. Her fingers clenched around the box that she was holding in irritation. The teenager rolled her eyes when she saw the motion.

"Oh _please_. Enough with the self-righteous indignation," she groaned as she dropped down from the roof and landed on the floor a few feet from Lena with a slight thud, her now-pony-tailed hair and coat flaring with the movement. "Admit it! He told you something you wanted to hear so you let him go. That's why you saved him from getting crushed. By the way, I noticed that little detail didn't come up. Have any of them figured out that you did more than just 'let him get away'?"

The dark-haired young woman now stood directly in front of the dark-haired young girl, towering over her by about a foot, the two of them glaring at each other with near-identical silver-blue eyes.

"What is your deal?" Lena demanded. Dianne's jaw worked but she said nothing to that, prompting the younger seijinn to lean in towards her aggressively. The other girl didn't give ground. "What do you want from me?"

"*_Get over yourself_!*" The teenager hissed, her voice strange and echoing suddenly when she lunged forward a little, her eyes and the veins on her neck flashing briefly and her features contorting into a frightening expression. Lena stumbled back a few steps in alarm with a slight cry. The next second, however, the seijinn wondered if she had imagined it because the teenager looked completely normal apart from appearing a little peeved perhaps.

"Get over yourself," she repeated coldly, in a normal voice, as though she hadn't said it already, "That's what I want from you. You have everything. Don't screw it up. You know you have powers, you've figured out they're strong. Figure out that they don't make you invincible or you'll regret in this life and the next. Trust me on this one. Oh, I'm sorry, did I piss you off?"

"_I'm_ fine," Lena snapped. Dianne cocked an eyebrow at her and then shrugged.

"Could've fooled me," She remarked as she strolled around the girl casually with her hands in her pockets. Almost as an afterthought she called over her shoulder "Nice hand,"

Lena's eyes narrowed at this and she initially interpreted it as some kind of pun or something on the other girl's behalf. When she glanced down, however, she dropped her box and once again scrambled backwards in alarm, holding her arms stiffly away from her as she flipped her hands forwards and backwards with a disbelieving "_What_?"

Her hands and lower arms from fingertip to elbow were glowing the way they did when she was in a fight tossing energy blasts around. But she hadn't been doing that. She had been annoyed, true, but she hadn't even been _thinking_ about doing that, had she? She hadn't even been using her telekinesis to move the box of supplies. She thought of the brief glimpse she had had of Dianne's arms and her eyes snapped up to look at the teenager with wide eyes…except that she was gone. Lena frowned and concentrated on finding her using her telepathy and got a rather nasty shock when she did; a psychic wall unlike anything she had encountered before sent her seijinn senses ricocheting off it with a faint echo of a bird shriek accompanying it, though she did manage to get one fragmented flash; it was a brief glimpse of Prattucci in the square. There was a torrent of rage and terrible blood lust in this brief snippet of thought, coupled with an intense battle over whether or not to act on the violent impulses directed at the man.

Lena shook her head and blinked, trying to center herself again as she concentrated on her hands. Apparently the latest addition to the crew had aggravated her more than she had realized. The young girl took a slow, deep breath in through her nose and closed her eyes, slowly exhaling through her mouth as she centered herself. She focused on pulling her energies back in towards herself, going through several different concentration techniques that some of her seijinn instructors had taught her as well as those that she herself had developed. Eventually the glow faded and died down, leaving her hands blissfully normal.

With that settled, Lena set herself to collecting up the spilled contents of her box and reassembling them. As she did she thought about this new stranger they had brought to Puerto Angel and the unnerving snippet she had just received from her. She couldn't help but wonder if Dianne was too much of a loose cannon to have around, especially now that one of their biggest enemies was on the rise again—admittedly in part because of her. She would have to talk to Cortez about it and maybe even Alice; the other seijinn might be able to lend her a second opinion on Dianne before she returned to her desk job with the Sphere.

But that could probably wait. If the new seijinn decided to try anything Lena would simply take her on. She had taken down Oslo and her powers had only been growing lately. If their guest decided to do anything then Lena would simply take her down. In the meantime, though, she would enjoy herself. She had always liked both baking and eating baked goods and couldn't remember the last time she'd been able to make cookies with her mother.

With her new determination set, Lena picked up her box again and headed back towards her house calmly with a slight spring in her step.

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The up-and-coming "Lady of Light" strolled away apparently without a care in the world in spite of the fact that she had what was hopefully a rather disturbing conversation. To her credit, she had been unnerved by the young woman's observation and apparent "disappearance" for at least a few minutes. Dianne felt her reach out telepathically and worried very briefly before there was the familiar light "bounce" of the younger girl's telepathic probe off her shield. She then watched the preteen swing her head left and then right in apparent alarm as she looked for the rather unpleasant teenager who had just intimidated her, or at least done her very best to. When she didn't see her the younger seijinn seemed to give up looking for her very quickly.

"Look up…She doesn't look up, why does _nobody_ _ever_ look up? I just dropped down in front of you from a building and you don't look up!? This is Skyland for crying out loud, it should be an automatic reaction for everyone who wants to _live_," Dianne muttered as she watched from her perch atop the tavern roof. Next to her a familiar, vaguely avian blue shimmer flitted into the air next to her.

_*She was the most powerful seijinn in the world until a week or so ago and still doesn't know that she's been unseated. She doesn't __**need**__ to look over her shoulder.*_

"It's arrogance like that which screws everything up," Dianne growled at the spectre as it slowly slid through the air around her. It scoffed, obviously bored already and restless. The throng of whispering voices that she constantly had to fight to contain buzzed in the back of her mind until one piqued a little louder, grumbling about his business and the "strays" that the captain always seemed to bring back home. The seijinn felt the Phoenix bristle with rage and she felt her face flush and her blood pump a little higher with a familiar fury, the urge to fight, to strike, to sink her claws into the traitor's flesh and rip it apart…

No! Those thoughts were not hers…well not exactly. Alright maybe technically…but no. Not a time to debating semantics, even with herself. She had to get a lid on this!

"What are you in such a rush for? We already had a fight a few days ago, didn't you get enough to satisfy you then?"

_:I didn't get __**him**__! I WANT him! The traitor!_

"And what about the little boy? You want to kill him too?" Dianne hissed at it. The Phoenix seemed to pause a moment as it considered this aspect.

_:He's the reason they always find us, his technology is—_

"He's their _friend_ here. You're not doing anything to him _or_ to Prattucci. I'm not letting you loose again,"

_:Don't tell me that you're not __tempted. __Even __if __you __don't __care __about __Oslo's __pet __scientist, __don't __tell me __you __don't __want __that __one. __Not __after __what __he handed us __over __to. So _don't_tell __me __you __aren't __tempted._

"I won't," Dianne murmured, unable to deny it. Even without the Phoenix muttering in her ear all the time she still wanted to throttle the man. But she wasn't about to do that. Who knew, the anti-seijinn jerk might even come in useful to the rebels if she changed things enough. Except… no, no that wasn't good enough for _her _either. Even watching him she felt a flashback of what he had—or rather would—betrayed her too. She could still remember the fear and the pain as though she were in that cursed place, even after four years. No, this one _had_ to go. He was a liability, not an asset.

Nevertheless, it couldn't be death by seijinn. At the very least it couldn't be allowed to look that way. She still couldn't let It have him. A different fate should be arranged for Prattucci, preferably at the hands of his own black market people if possible. Something nice and predictable where if there was any suspicion about his demise it wouldn't be used for any anti-seizing or anti-rebel causes. In any case, he was not a priority at the moment and could wait. _It _was not happy at the notion that _It _was to be denied this kill It so dearly wanted and struggled against Its mental bonds.

Dianne took a deep breath and then closed her eyes. She let out a long sigh, trying to focus and maintain control over herself. Her hands came up to cover her ears. There were just so many people here…she'd spent so much time living with only one or two other people at a time she'd forgotten what it was like to have to shut out so many people both night and day. The latter was by far the more difficult to deal with. Her head was pounding. She had a feeling her fever was on its way back, she was starting to sweat underneath the coat she didn't dare part with. She sucked in her breath and jerked her head as though to try and banish the thoughts from her head.

"We're not doing this," she said through clenched teeth "Not here!"

With that she stood and started to dash across the rooftops, using her powers quickly to flit across the roofs on her way back to the relative safety of the lighthouse attic, once again feeling a pang of longing for the company she hardly dared to keep.

888888

Lena spent the evening with her mother baking cookies. It was almost strange to think that had they done this very activity when they had last planned to they might never have met Cortez or Dahlia; they might still be on Babylonia living in complete obscurity watching over their shoulders for signs that someone had found out Lena's seijinn-secret and living in fear of Guardians. Yet, here they were, meticulously measuring out the ingredients and careful not to waste so much as a drop of the precious liquid ingredients. The mother and daughter laughed and talked about the most mundane things, simply enjoying each other's company as they regularly did since Mila's liberation from Karzem.

"D'you think there will be any left over after we give them to the class tomorrow?" Lena asked as she started to spoon some of the batter out onto the cookie sheet. Since her mother had come to Puerto angel the adult seijinn had set aside some of her free time to help the Vector teach some of the children on the block, in particular the seijinn children who were in residence. She usually managed at least one class a week and her students were progressing steadily. Even Lena found that she might have a thing or two to learn still from her mother.

"Oh I'm sure there will be at least three extra," Mila said with a wink. Lena giggled, both of them finding delight in the relatively simple activity. It was one that they had often done together back in Babylonia, back when things were so much simpler and neither brother nor sister had a bounty on their head. It was strange to think that eighteen months ago she had never heard of the name 'Oslo' and never met a pirate before in her life. Now she couldn't imagine her life without the family they had amassed for themselves at Puerto Angel.

"There," Mila said as they finished filling the cookie sheet. She gave her daughter a wry look and held out the spoon for her in silent invitation, uncertain as to whether or not Lena would consider licking the bowl too childish...

The young girl's eyes lit up and she grabbed the bowl and spoon eagerly, widening her mother's content smile. She reached over and gently moved one of the longer strands that framed her daughter's face behind her ear. It slithered back down right away and the woman shook her head slightly.

"When was the last time you had a haircut?" she asked, picking up the trays using towels to cover her hands and heading for the oven.

"Mmm…a couple months before we rescued you from Karzem, I think. Sanskin did it. He's a pretty good barber," Lena replied around a mouthful of cookie dough.

"Would you like to grow it out or would you like me to do it?" Mila asked. When they had lived on Babylonia Mila had always cut her children's hair both out of convenience and caution; they hadn't had an official barber on the block and she had always been very careful about having her children's rather telling DNA lying about.

"Nah, I like it better short," Lena said, licking the spoon with enthusiasm. Just then the door opened to admit Mahad, Dahlia and Wayan. All three of them were covered in soot and engine grease.

"Hey mom!" Mahad greeted

"What happened to you?" Lena asked

"Oh, the engine connection on that new piece was messed up. We're okay, we just got a face full of soot and engine grease,"

"Hey Mila, I was wondering if you three would like to join me and Dahlia for dinner at our place. I'm making Fettuccini Alfredo,"

"Really? Oh, you guys have to come over then! Wayan's famous for his pasta!" Dahlia exclaimed enthusiastically. When Mila still seemed to hesitate the blonde added "Besides, the two of us managed to get a cream pie off Prattucci and there's no way we'll be able to eat it all by ourselves and Cortez and Cheng are busy tonight. It seems a shame to waste that dessert…"

The corner of the dark skinned rebel's mouth twitched. Lena was notorious for her sweet tooth and Mahad— while surprisingly capable of going hungry for days without complaining if necessary—could be a bottomless pit when food was in front of him.

"Please mom?" Lena pleaded endearingly, more than willing to play the part of the little kid when it suited her. She knew that her mom didn't really want to cook; she seemed tired. Perhaps she hadn't slept well the night before. Mila looked from one of her children to the other and sighed slightly, nodding her assent with a smile.

"Alright," she said, putting her arm around Lena's shoulder and squeezing affectionately in a brief side hug before looking up at the other two rebels "What time would you like us?"

"Whenever you like," Wayan said with a shrug just before Dahlia stepped in quickly

"Uh, why don't you come over in a couple hours? Give the cookies time to bake and cool,"

"Well that sounds just fine to me," Mila said. "We'll see you around 6 or so, thank you. That sounds lovely,"

"Awesome!" Mahad half-laughed in excitement, "Wayan's pasta is the best mom! You are just going to love it! Thanks guys!"

"Go clean yourself up, Mahad," his mother chided, her tone tinted with a hint of a chuckle "If we're going to be their guests you are going to look presentable,"

Wayan and Dahlia both smirked. The blonde rolled her eyes and shook her head, her hands on her hips in a familiar mannerism as they headed out the door. The dark-skinned rebel waved on their way outside

"See you in an hour, Mila,"

"Thanks, Wayan," the seijinn said again as Dahlia and Wayan headed out the door with a wave.

As the pair ambled away they both glanced over their shoulders to make sure that they were out of hearing range before their friendly expressions became more serious,

"So…do you actually have a pie?" Wayan inquired

"No," Dahlia admitted in a grumble "It was what I could think of to convince her. Alice is right, something is off. She doesn't look well,"

"Did she tell you what it was?"

"No, she didn't. I'm pretty sure that she knows what is going on, though. Whatever it is, the least we can do is spare her cooking. Besides, it should be fun," the blonde said with a shrug.

"Course," Wayan agreed. He paused and then asked hesitantly "Think Mahad and Lena have…noticed?"

"To be honest…no. At least, I don't think that they _want_ to see it and she's hiding whatever it is from them. It makes sense, when you think about it. They just got her back. They don't want to face the possibility that something might threaten their family again that they can't fight off with a ship or an energy blast,"

"I guess you have a point. Well, I'd better start cooking," Wayan remarked as they reached the town. This was where they had to go to different parts of town.

"Yeah…guess I'd better find Prattucci and see what favours I'll have to trade in for a pie…" Dahlia grumbled, not relishing the idea of being in a position where she needed a favour from him. The blonde and the trader had never been _friends_, per se, but they had at one point been friendly towards each other. That, however, had changed and they had gone from cordial to chilly in their dealings with one another. It didn't help that he was so miserly when it came to his black market goods.

"Good luck," Wayan told her sympathetically. She threw him a mock salute and turned a corner to head for the trading post whilst her friend headed back to their flat.

As she walked through the idyllically cobbled streets the blonde couldn't help but think about what Di Wan said. She had rarely stopped thinking about it since their meeting in the St. Nazaire's brig. Dahlia hadn't thought about that box for years, and it was again something she had never told anyone. As a matter of fact, no one besides her and her sister even knew about it. She desperately wanted to continue stubbornly rejecting even the remotest possibility of a relationship between Di Wan and the older sister she had idolized as a child, but that was starting to become more difficult.

The matter weighed heavily on her mind even as she bargained long and hard with Prattucci for the stupid dessert and was ever present in the back of her mind as she enjoyed herself with her friends that evening. She did her best not to let it dampen the fun she had with Mahad and Lena and their mother; she was particularly careful around Alice, though the guardian was good about respecting her privacy. Besides, she seemed to be more interested in Wayan lately, which was rather endearing.

Mahad had come dressed in his father's coat, a garment he had taken to sporting on a regular basis. He particularly seemed to enjoy using the pockets and sleeves for poorly executed magic tricks which amused most people to a degree until he tried a little too hard for a little too long. He was still fun to be around, though. The brash young pilot showed his typical tom-foolery in their little dinner party, this time going out of his way to try and get a spoon to stick to his nose as he waddled around the room with it, his head tilted back at an angle and his feet in a wide stance as he overdramatized the effort it took to maintain the cutlery's position on his nose. The effect was as humorous as it was intended to be.

"You look like a circus bear!" Lena had laughed. Dahlia couldn't help but agree. The evening had been great fun and enough to distract her from the issue, though unresolved questions continued to gnaw at her for the next few days. It didn't affect her work; one thing that the blonde was above all was efficient. Those thoughts were, however, what brought her out to one of her favourite spots on the block. It was right along one of the edges near the lighthouse with a short gap between the main Puerto Angel block and a small little section with some kind of old earth device on top. She regularly used the old metal contraption for target practise with small missiles like stones. Sometimes she turned it into a game if she had some company, she had even taught Lena how to throw the stones _just_ right to hit the target. The seijinn had teased her by cheating with the use of her powers the first time. Sometimes she still did, and it had become somewhat of an inside joke between them recently.

She was on her own at the moment though. Or, so she had thought.

"Hi." A voice said from behind Dahlia. The blonde pirate turned to see Dianne standing a few meters away, her hands in her coat pockets. It was a warm day but she still wore the trench coat to hide her skin. The blonde noticed that her hair was now pulled back and up slightly in a long ponytail sticking out the back of her head with the shorter strands at the front still framed her face.

"Hi," The blonde replied, surprised.

"Mind if I join you?" the teenager asked hesitantly.

"Uh…sure. It's a free block." Dahlia replied, finally finding a pebble and weighing it mentally. She had rather hoped to be alone to think but also wasn't going to be rude to their newest crew member, particularly when said addition had been so very reclusive since she had gotten to Puerto Angel. The girl smiled slightly and walked over as the blonde hurled her small missile at the metal structure. The satisfying sound of rock hitting metal echoed as it made contact.

"Nice throw." The dark-haired teen said in admiration as she knelt down and reached out a gloved hand to pick up a rock of her own. She tested its weight in her palm in the exact same manner as her companion. She threw it almost casually to hit the center of the contraption with a similar resounding clang.

"You're not bad yourself," Dahlia praised as she selected another rock.

"Well I had a good teacher," She said, looking directly at the blonde as she said it. There was a strange expression on her face that the rebel couldn't quite place. Dianne looked away quickly and picked up another stone. She grinned mischievously and gestured at their "target". "I'll give it a black eye,"

She took a half step back and wound her arm up before hurling it forward with all her strength, stumbling forward as she did so with a very familiar technique. The rock whistled through the air and smacked into the contraption. Dahlia clapped once and then picked up another rock.

"Its nose is so gone!" the blonde said, repeating the dark haired teen's motions. Again the missile found its target.

"That's 20 points!" Dianne said with a slight laugh.

"What?" Dahlia asked. The other girl blinked in brief confusion.

"You…you don't play with points?" she asked, apparently bewildered.

"No," the blonde said. She paused and thought about it a moment before smiling, "Not a bad idea though,"

"Oh…but my m—" the girl seemed to catch herself on something and stopped abruptly before picking up another stone and tossing it casually "I always played with points,"

"We can use points if you like," Dahlia offered, wondering if the gesture would do anything to ease the obvious homesickness the girl seemed to be experiencing.

"It's no big deal. Forget about it," Dianne said with a shrug.

Just then the sound of an engine and a loud "whoop" sang through the air as a blur of red and tan zipped by them; Mahad was riding his speeder around the block again, no doubt training for a rematch with his piloting nemesis Lucretia. He was really getting attached to the coat, too. The blonde rolled her eyes and shook her head fondly, glancing over to her companion. The dark haired teenager watched him bank the speeder before speeding across like a bullet again. She took a couple of running steps forward in excitement

"No way! A genuine first edition 300-megawatt power speeder with over 120 km per hour speed capabilities? And in red too! I'd forgotten he had one of those…man, that's like a collector's item!" she exclaimed. Dahlia blinked and frowned.

"Collectors' item?" she repeated "That model is barely 10 years old,"

Dianne flinched in alarm before laughing nervously.

"I-I only meant that…you might want to hold onto it. A model like that, it's destined to be valuable one day,"

Dahlia relaxed slightly and picked up another rock

"Well, good luck with that. There's no way Mahad will ever part with that thing. It was hard enough for him to lose the Hyperion!"

"Aww, but the Mark II's gonna be even better!" Dianne exclaimed

"We can only hope," The blonde rebel said with a smile.

"Oh yeah!" the brunette agreed enthusiastically. The two of them watched as Mahad decided to show off for a little while, throwing aerials, spins, sharp banks and other tricks that he had picked up, letting loose a loud 'whoop' every other trick or so. Dianne grinned widely and laughed at the display, even going so far as to clap in appreciation of the stunts as they brought back fond memories. Dahlia cracked a small smile and crossed her arms across her chest, shaking her head slightly in a fond, long-suffering manner. The brunette couldn't help but notice this reaction and a deep, throaty chuckle rose in her throat.

"What?" The blonde asked curiously

"You two," Dianne replied, nodding her head in the general direction of the pilot who was blatantly vying for their attention. "You're just meant for each other,"

"_What_?!" Dahlia squeaked, a blush rising quickly up her face at the statement. "D-don't be ridiculous! I mean, me and _Mahad_? Sure he's a flirt but…no. No way,"

"Why not? He might flirt with other girls but he only has eyes for you," Dianne told her.

"I don't know about that. You seem to get along okay," The blonde retorted jokingly, though she couldn't help but feel a sudden, unexpected surge of anticipation for the answer the moment that the question was asked. To her mild relief and bemusement her companion's reaction was immediate and sharp.

"Of course he's awesome—wait, whoa!" She exclaimed when she realized what the blonde meant, whipping around and putting her hands out defensively and shaking both them and her head in extremely firm denial "Whoa, no! Nononononono! NO! EW! Not _that_ way! That would just be _so_ wrong on _soooo_ many levels! No." She let out a long exhale and dropped her hands to rest them on her hips before continuing "No. For one thing, I don't do the whole 'dating thing'— it just doesn't seem to agree with me. Besides, it's written all over him whenever he's with you. You're more than a crush. Just…trust me on this one,"

Dahlia didn't say anything in response to this, shrugging off the suggestion dismissively though her expression was pensive. Dianne watched her carefully with almost baited breath before changing the topic of the conversation.

"I noticed that you didn't bring Wanda home," she said.

"No," Dahlia replied shortly, not particularly pleased with the change in conversation. She'd just started to forget about that whilst they were fooling around. She took a deep breath and continued "It would _not_ be a good idea to bring her here,"

"I guess people wouldn't be too happy about it, huh?"

"It would be a stupid move to bring a Guardian here," the blonde retorted. Dianne put her hands in her pockets and turned her face towards a breeze that came by, looking at some point in the horizon as she asked

"What makes you think she's still loyal to them? I mean, apart from you being her sister, you tried to save her. They just left her to rot,"

"She was Oslo's lieutenant. Besides, we still don't really know for sure that she's my sister yet," the pirate said with an uncomfortable clearing of her throat. She stuffed her hands in her pockets and scuffed her shoe in the dirt, digging the ball of her foot into it in a sudden intense interest in the consistency of the rocky soil beneath the leather sole.

"Haven't you gotten the DNA back yet?" Dianne asked, perplexed. The other young woman shrugged.

"Cheng said that there's a transmission from Oxford for me, but I haven't read it yet. Doesn't really matter anyway, she can't come here. Like I said, Di Wan would have and probably still will do anything for Oslo,"

"Di Wan might have," Dianne said slowly before giving her a sidelong look "But would Wanda?"

Dahlia blinked and opened her mouth to retort, but stopped and closed it again as she mulled the one of the many thoughts that had been nagging at her for the last few days surrounding the (former?) guardian. Instead of answering the other young woman directly she merely nodded once with a pensive 'Hmmm,". Dianne gave a little shrug and turned to start trekking back up to the Lighthouse, pausing only briefly to glance over her shoulder at the blonde.

"Think about it," she suggested, leaving the rebel with just as much if not more to think about as when she had joined her.

As such when she went back to her flat later that day she took herself up to her room and closed the door, glad in that moment that Alice had left to return to her job at the Sphere already. What Dahlia wanted in the next few minutes (at the very least) was to be alone.

Taking a deep breath the blonde pirate reached for her hand-held computer to open the files that Cheng had passed on to her from Oxford. Cortez had no doubt already read it along with his adoptive son and she would have to read it herself. She pressed the button to turn it on and quickly found the file, opening it and reading its contents. There was a whole report included, it seemed that the doctors at Oxford liked to go into detail when given the time and opportunity. There were paragraphs on blood work and blood types and alleles and all sorts. Not having gone to medical school and being more interested in strategy and engineering than biology, Dahlia didn't understand all of what was written but enough to get the gist of it before they finally got to the damning line in capital letters:

DNA MATCH CONFIRMED. RELATIONSHIP; SIBLINGS.

888888888888

Several sectors away the woman that Dahlia had been spending so much time thinking about was lying on a small cot on top of the blankets, looking up at the plain ceiling. The sun had just set on her block and she was in the guest room that her host had generously provided her. It was a quaint little space that had been decorated in such a way as to create the illusion of more space then there actually was. The bed was a modest size and sheeted with old but still very decent cotton. The window was well placed to provide the guest with a beautiful view of the seemingly boundless expanse of sky reaching out behind the block.

She might be a prisoner in all but name, but her jailors acted far more like hosts. She felt more like a guest than an inmate, even with a few uncomfortable situations. Aida was cautious around her and discreetly kept her young son occupied elsewhere but she was also just that: discreet. Whilst in the other seijinn's company she was polite and personable, though a bit distant. That was just fine in Di Wan—Wanda. She had to start thinking of herself as Wanda again. It would take practice, but she would simply have to get used to it.

Distance was perfectly acceptable in Wanda's books. It was familiar. It was something she could handle with ease and comfort. It was certainly an improvement on the Pirates' glee and disdain...on Dahlia's rejection. Wanda spent a large portion of her time thinking on the blonde rebel. She saw it now, and didn't know how she hadn't seen it before. Dahlia _looked_ like their mother. She had dismissed the name as a commonplace one; by the time she had read it on a report and a wanted poster she had met no less than three Dahlia's, one of which had been a blonde girl at the Academy. She had never looked at Dahlia all that closely, never put much effort into more than a vague estimation of her age. Besides, she had been given the news that the rebels had gotten her sister killed the day they were separated. That hatred had sustained her through those early days at the academy and in a roundabout way helped her let go. Harping on her dead family didn't get her advanced. Feelings like that were nothing but a draw back. She had closed them off and ignored them quite cheerfully for a very long time.

At least she had…until she couldn't anymore.

Her brief bout of amnesia at Oxford had reintroduced her to the emotions and sympathies she had long deemed a useless waste of time and energy. When her memory had returned, a vague intuition had kept her polite and friendly with the people who had protected her. A survival instinct, it seemed. It had worked, for the most part. She still wasn't sure what would have happened to her had she been handed back over to the Sphere then and there. Now, given the bits and pieces she had gathered from Oxford, the political climate within the Sphere and the Guardians was anything but friendly towards her. Oslo and his associate were in disgrace even in "death" following the complete destruction of two Sphere monuments: Karzem and the Monolith. Oslo had run the Sphere in all but name, and even then all but name on paper. After the disaster that had been Karzem, however, the fools who ran the sphere had flexed their long dormant political powers by actually leaving their luxuries and taking stock of the world around them. Now they had actually returned to the work they had largely neglected in favour of leisure, comfortable in the extensive infrastructure which had kept them in their positions. If Di Wan went back now she'd likely find herself made an "example" of.

With a frustrated sigh the young woman swung her legs over the side of the bed and stepped over to the small set of drawers under the window. She opened the drawers the see exactly what she already knew was there; neatly folded sets of plain clothes, a simplistic comb, an old book of some sort with a weathered and bent soft cover, and a mirror. She had made no changes to the room, even though she had largely kept to it during her stay so far. Her fingers ghosted over the handle of the small looking glass, running the tip of her nail along the wood before picking it up.

"Who am I?" Wanda murmured to herself as she examined what she saw. She ran her fingers through the short blonde strands that were growing back on her head, the sensation still a strange nuance. It was partially covering her tattoo now. She could shave it off again…or she could let it go.

Di Wan sighed again and almost threw the mirror down before slamming the drawer shut. She stomped back to her bed and flipped down on.

"Who _can_ I be?" She asked the ceiling. She shook her head and looked around the room listlessly before crawling underneath the covers of her bed, lying down so that she faced the window so that she could watch the sky morph from the violet hues of twilight into the black of night strewn with pinpricks of starlight.

Di Wan wanted to go back to the Sphere. She needed to. It was her home, it was who she was, it was her life's devotion! Before those brats had come along she had a cemented place at her Master's side; his undisputed favorite and trusted right hand at the age of twenty-five. Her position had been secure! She had progressed through the ranks and amassed seijinn skill faster than anyone but Oslo and the Traitor-Seijinn, Mila. She had been her Master's weapon of choice and perhaps even his chosen successor. Yet now…now she knew that she had been lied to. She herself had perpetrated many lies in the name of the Sphere and her own advancement, so it seemed hypocritical to be upset about it, but knowing that her Master _had_ to have known…moreover, he had to have known the extent of her loyalty to him. She may well have killed her wayward rebel sister if he had asked her then. She certainly would have captured the girl for him had he but asked. But instead he had...

Wanda shuddered. He had forced himself into her sister's mind. And she had been a part of it. She had stood by and watched. She had _admired_ her Master's abilities. She could never have harnessed the energy of the solar surge they way he had. And now she knew that he hadn't just done that to an enemy. He'd done that to her kin. He had to have known after dwelling in her mind—hadn't he? And he hadn't told his most loyal and faithful servant. Her best efforts had not been enough, nor had her loyalty; he had all but disowned her before her capture.

The part that was still firmly Di Wan bridled at the sacrilegious thoughts. Of course he had disowned her. Of course he had cast her out. Had she not failed him repeatedly? Had he not given her enough chances? It wasn't her fault that she was surrounded by incompetent fools, but that was no excuse to give High Commander Oslo! Another part of her, however, now rebelled against that steadfast bond. Had her past service meant nothing? She fought tooth and nail for him every time for _nothing_. She had even fought to bring him her replacement because he wanted it; she had known Lena would have a position higher than even she could hope for.

It took a long time before she drifted off to sleep, not that the Guardian got any peace from her dreams.

_It was as though she were standing in the middle of a theatre watching everything play out from a third person perspective as a barrage of images flashed by;_

_ The bald woman with the tattoo stood on a farming block outside a house. She was encircled by brigs and standing impatiently, demanding that the seijinn within the house surrender themselves without hesitation. She felt the sardonic surprise when what appeared to be a simple farm-worker emerged wearing patched overalls with her hair in two braids down her back…_

_…Two little girls with blonde hair giggled as they chased each other around an old playground, the older in pursuit of her younger counterpart through the grass and around the rusted obstacles. _

_"You can't catch me!" The smaller girl sang out with a giggle in a light, endearing accent. _

_"I'll bet I can!" She—Wanda— laughed as she gave chase around a set of swings. Her longer legs made catching her clever "quarry" easier as she hopped over an old wooden fence instead of having to take the time to crawl under it. She dove forward and caught the smaller girl around the middle, lifting with her knees to swing her around. _

_"Ha! Got you!" she cried triumphantly, though her little sister had stopped laughing as Wanda put her down. The smile on her face slid away too when the shadow crossed over the paid and she pulled her little sister in a little closer with a slight gasp of fear._

_"Wanda…what's that?" the small child asked quietly, pointing at the ships that were coming in over the block. _

_"We have to find mom," Wanda said nervously, grabbing her sister's hand and hurrying back towards the university…_

_…She was Di Wan again. She was in a gladiator ring and she was furious. She was looking at one young man clad in white with a bandana on his head and pointing at another in a red and white pilot suit, demanding that the first youth "finish" the other. She felt a rush of fury and indignation at the gladiator's refusal and was about to attack him herself when she was struck by an energy blast that sent her flying off her feet…_

_… Wanda and little Dahlia were hurrying back towards their house when the smaller girl tripped and fell with a cry._

_"Dahli!" she exclaimed, stopping to help her up "It's okay, come on, we have to keep goin—"_

_She was cut off by a sudden bang as their quaint little brick house erupted into flames, prompting both girls to reel backwards again with cries of alarm. _

_"Our house!" Her little sister wailed. _

_"Come on, we have to find somewhere to hide!" Wanda cried. She was starting to panic; her heart felt like it was going to explode out of her chest. A rush of adrenaline made her feel cold and energetic in bursts of movement to avoid the shots and explosions. _

_"Wanda! Dahlia!" someone—her mother?— cried frantically as a tall, slender woman with straight blonde hair, a white coat and glasses ran towards her two daughters. She fell to one knee and seized both of them into a brief, desperate embrace before scooping up little Dahlia and grabbing Wanda's hand, dragging her along as she took off at a run. Wanda struggled to keep up with her but clung to her mother's hand with all her might…_

_…As Di Wan she was thrown off her feet by an energy blast. She was furious—and face down on a slab of block. She pounded her fist onto the ground and growled out "My soldiers are going to make mincemeat out of y—" she stopped herself short when she saw the pair of slipper-like white shoes and froze, her gaze slowly travelled up the white-clad legs and torso to see a head as bald as her own. The face was familiar and the expression in held sent her heart plummeting to the bottom of her chest even as a flush rose to her face. The anger in the commander's voice made her almost tremble in dismay and embarrassment at her own failure…_

_…Wanda had been separated from her mother and sister. She cried out for them in vain as she tried to fight her way through the crowd. She half-shrieked when she was knocked over amongst the crowd, throwing her arms up over her head, terror of being trampled running through her. This terror was only increased when she tried to get up only to be knocked back down. When the soles of shoes started to get in close she lost it and cried out again in fear as she curled up into a ball, her powers acting instinctively to erect a bright blue energy shield around herself and repel the terrified mob. The screams briefly became louder and then quieted as people were blown off their feet and then scrambled to recover their feet and continue fleeing. When she uncurled there was only one person standing across from her wearing a Guardian's uniform. The man approached her._

_"Not unimpressive," he remarked sleekly. His head jerked at a sudden sound and raised a glowing hand, stopping a piece of debris in mid-air before it could hit her. She gasped and recoiled at the sharp-looking shard of glass and flinched when the man discarded it with a casual flick of his hand. _

_"Come child," he barked, extending his glowing hand. Wanda's breath caught in alarm as an invisible force pulled her to her feet and dragged her across for the man to grip her arm. "This mob is no place for such a promising young seijinn,"…_

_ …The scene changed again, but this time it had no taint of familiarity that her flashbacks did. There was blasting and fire everywhere and she stood in the middle of it. There were the pirates and people from the sphere: brigs and ships and strange soldiers that seemed to be wearing a sort of mask or something on their faces._

_ And Dahlia was there! She was there and Di Wan/Wanda felt a surge of dread and danger. Danger was coming, it was coming towards her! But then….why was Dahlia there? She was on her home block somewhere far away…Suddenly an image of someone coming at the blonde pirate with a weapon charging filled her mind—_

Wanda was screaming when she bolted into a sitting position, her body coated in a sheen of cold sweat.

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"…Lena, Lena!" Mila called to get her attention. The young girl jumped slightly and turned her head in the direction where her mother's voice had come from attentively

"Can you thread the needle for us, please?" the adult seijin asked. Her daughter raised an eyebrow and "felt" for the objects assembled inside the circle. There was a long plastic needle and some thread there, sure enough. With a bored exhale of breath she sat back, leaning against her hands on the ground as the two objects levitated into the air and the thread flew through the eye of the needle in an instant. The class continued on in a similar way for the better part of an hour until they were finally dismissed. Most of the children then trudged over to the lighthouse for some of the Vector's schooling with groans about homework and stuff. However, Lena hung back

"Mom, can't I do something else? This class is boring. I taught myself most of this stuff in like a week!" she whined.

"Lena, I know that you're restless but we need to get some of these young seijinns trained and you agreed to help me demonstrate," her mother said as she gathered up the materials she had used back into their box. Her daughter sighed.

"I know that I did, and I do want to help, but…couldn't I just come for a little while at the beginning and then go practice on my own or with Celia or something? I need to practice my own stuff too," she said before adding hesitantly "Maybe…maybe you and I could practice together at some point? The two of us?"

"Lena, you know there's nothing that I would like better, but these children need to be trained," Mila told her.

"You mean like how I was trained?" Lena muttered under her breath. Her mother heard her and looked up suddenly, her expression both hurt and concerned at the same time. She opened her mouth to say something but her daughter then looked away and flushed, unable to believe that she had actually said that.

"Lena…"

"Sorry. I shouldn't have said that," The young girl said, fully sincere in her apology. She started to get to her feet when her mother's hand on her arm halted her movements. She stopped and looked down to meet Mila's gaze.

"We will find time to work on your powers now that we're together again. I promise," Mila told her. She sighed and then started to say something else when a new voice interrupted the pair

"Am I interrupting something?" the young woman calling herself Dianne said carefully as she approached. Mila's hand dropped from her daughter's arm and she got to her feet as Lena groaned.

"Not her again," the youngest seijinn grumbled as the teenager approached them with her hands in her pockets.

"Hey," Dianne greeted quietly

"Good afternoon," Mila replied, polite but distant and a little wary as was probably to be expected, particularly with someone who practically radiated psychic repellant. Dianne noticed both reactions and shifted slightly from one foot to the other before motioning around them with her pocketed hands.

"Have a good class?" She inquired in an awkward attempt at conversation.

"Yes, well enough." Mila told her with a slightly warmer smile. Lena didn't make eye contact with the adolescent and went about to finish up the tidying that her mother had been doing earlier. Dianne noticed this but returned the snub by ignoring the other girl herself for a few moments.

"I was wondering if I might be able to join your class," She began.

"The class is for kids," Lena snapped at her, finally acknowledging her.

"Lena!" Mila admonished.

"No, no. It's alright. I'm an outsider and we did have a bit of a…row earlier. Actually, what I meant was that I was wondering if I could lend you a hand sometimes. I know my theory inside and out. Trust me, I've had a lot of time to study it." She told them. Mila looked her up and down with a critical eye as she considered the young woman's offer, weighing what she had heard from the others. There was no denying the teenager's power, but there were definitely questions about her stability.

"I'll think about it," she said after a few moments before turning back to her daughter "I'm going to go back to the house. Don't be late for dinner." The woman then smiled thinly at the two of them and headed back towards the village tiredly. Once she was out of hearing range Dianne turned to Lena, planting her hands on her hips.

"You want more of a challenge? Spar with me." She said. The younger girl crossed her arms over her chest

"Why would you want to do that?" she challenged. The other girl smiled coldly and started counting off the reasons on her fingers.

"One, you're bored, you said it yourself. Two, no one else besides Oslo or your mother can match you and you know it and three…well, judging by that arm I'm probably the best qualified," The teenager finished as she crossed her arms over her chest and jerked her head at the fist Lena had clenched at her side. The young seijinn looked down at her hand and breathed in sharply, her eyes widening and her hand flexing in alarm to see that it was, once again, glowing without permission or prompt. She tried in vain to quiet it by a simple thought (the way she normally did) to no avail and felt herself starting to panic. If there was one thing she hated it was not being in control of her own powers…

"Calm down," Dianne said almost gently, approaching the younger girl when she saw the fear start to rise in her eyes The teenager put a hand on Lena's shoulder gingerly and then sat down, patting the ground next to her in invitation. The younger seijinn hesitated for a moment before slowly sitting on the grass a foot or two away from where Dianne had indicated. The teenager didn't seem to be phased by the distance and in fact made no comment on it. Instead she dug through one of her pockets and produced wadded-up, wrinkled, elbow-length glove. She held it out to Lena as though giving her a peace offering.

"What's this?" Lena asked warily.

"What does it look like? It's a glove. Doesn't make any difference, I just find that it helps not to have people staring at you all the time. It makes them nervous," Dianne told her. There was a brief pause of silence. Lena looked down at her glowing hand and then at her companion and the glove though she made no move to take it. Finally she bit the corner of her mouth and managed to ask,

"H-how do you…you know, make it stop?"

"You don't." Dianne said before briefly pausing and reconsidering her answer "Well, that's not quite true. Used to be if I didn't think about it too much and did something relaxing it would go away,"

Lena looked at the long sleeves of the other girl's coat. She had been unconscious when their newest member had displayed her abilities and her unusual skin condition and as such had not gotten a good look at it. Dianne noted her gaze and sat back, rolling back her sleeve and pulling off her glove one finger at a time. The younger of the two was visibly taken aback at the pulsating veins and luminescent skin.

"You mean…yours doesn't go away?" she half-inquired-half-stated in horror. The teenager rolled her sleeve back down.

"Nope," She said matter-of-factly. "Not unless I'm completely drained and what little juice I have left is fixing me up. This is the price of being able to disintegrate a flag ship in 23 seconds flat and still have enough left to kick Oslo's but before forgetting to tell everyone that he's still alive. Don't complain, you don't look like something out of a horror story or lab accident brochure yet. Be happy,"

Lena scowled. She had gone from almost pleasant and helpful to rude once again.

"You're just a ray of sunshine, aren't you? Just what is your problem with me anyway?" she demanded. Dianne rolled her eyes and started to turn as though to simply walk away from the conversation without answering the question when a movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention, prompting her to glance to the left to see Mahad jogging up to them.

"There you are Squirt!" He exclaimed as he reached them and grabbed Lena's hand "Come on, we gotta go! Cortez is calling all hands to the Saint Nazaire,"

"Why?" Lena asked even as she hurried to fall in step with her brother as he continued at a quick jog. Dianne started forward but then stopped, unsure as to whether or not she was included in this and as such kept a discreet distance even while listening to what the young man was staying.

"We just got a distress signal from Spencer's block. Something really weird is going on near their block and Di Wan is going nuts!" The pilot told his sister as their jog picked up into a run "Something about the sky being weird!"

Dianne skidded to a stop with a sharp intake of breath, her eyes nearly popping out of her head with a sinking realization that sent her heart plummeting into her stomach.

"No…" she breathed. The bird-like blue wisp shimmered into the air next to her and the two exchanged a glance that was uncharacteristically same-minded before both looking back to where Lena and Mahad were running off to. The teenager shook her head in denial and groaned as she took off at a run after them. "No, no, no, _no!_"

**A/N: Not a lot of action in this chapter, but there is a lot in the next one. As usual it will go up as soon as I can get it done. Please drop me a line and tell me what you think of the story :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**Author's note: Okay, in the interests of actually posting something before another month goes by I am splitting this chapter into two parts. So you get two action packed chapters! Here's the first bit.**

**Also, just some…"housekeeping" here if you will. Alright, here's the trouble with time travellers with the same name; it can get confusing. As you might have noticed I refer to future Lena as 'Dianne' when she is with the rebels from the 2250s. In this chapter, however, there will be points where I switch to calling her Lena. I will try to transition this so that it is clear and keep it from being confusing. **

"So what's the plan Cortez?" Mahad asked as he and Lena came running onto the bridge.

"We've got all the Mosquito pilots ready and waiting. They've been attacked by the same group that Oslo's gathered around himself and they seem to have a scientist with them whose done something to the sky. We'll have to go in and secure the block before we put Di Wan under tighter wraps," The captain told them briskly, "Mahad, get to a mosquito. Lena, sit with Cheng for now. When we near the block I want you ready to get out there and secure Di Wan if needed."

"No problem Cortez!" she told him with enthusiasm. If there was one thing she could do it was take her old opponent out of commission. It would almost be like old times…

Her wave of nostalgia was interrupted by the resounding boom of the door slamming open as Dianne rushed through it and zipped across the room and up the stairs. She leaned around Cortez and gripped the railing surrounding his captain's wheel with a clenched gloved hand.

"I'm coming with you," It was not a question.

"I don't remember inviting you along," he growled as he turned his back to her and started down the stairs, barking orders as he strode towards the engine room shouting something about an engine calibration that he would simply do himself as they took off to save time. The newcomer followed him.

"Look, I won't get in the way! I'll ride in the back of a mosquito, I'll sit outside, I don't care but I'm coming with you," she repeated, intentionally staying half a step behind the captain as he strode down the hallway at a brisk pace in hopes that he would see she wasn't trying to challenge him as captain with her adamant demand.

"You're not a member of this crew," he informed her as he rounded a corner. She kept pace with him easily.

"Not yet," She muttered wryly under her breath

"What was that?" Cortez asked sharply, his head jerking slightly in her direction.

"You need me!" Dianne half-growled as she skipped around and stopped directly in front of him, thereby forcing him to halt. Her pale eyes bored into his with intensity and determination when she repeated "You need me…and I think you know it,"

The captain narrowed his eyes and scowled, setting his jaw stubbornly and his mouth in a thin line. In response the teenager cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest with an equally mulish expression on her face. He didn't have time to pause for long though and didn't have the time to argue with her. This time it was his turn to push past her.

"Alright, don't get in the way!" he ordered as he stalked off towards his destination. Dianne didn't follow him this time and simply stood there, her tense posture almost relaxing in spite of the fact that they were undoubtedly heading off to battle.

"Yes sir! You won't regret it!" She told him. He let out a huff that told her he already did. She didn't care. She watched him walk away and muttered under her breath

"I'm not letting anything happen to any of you. Not this time,"

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"You need to _stand down_!" Aida's neighbor shouted. Together he and Aida were working together to keep their guest contained in a large blue bubble. The former guardian had been practically berserk since the sun had risen. She had been so cooperative the outburst had been unexpected, but had not caught them off guard. Di Wan growled at them and slammed a fist into the wall around her, making her prison shudder and her captors wince in concentration as they struggled to keep it up.

"Can't you fools _sense_ it? We're in danger! We have to get out of here! What sort of seijinns are you? No wonder Shinsiki managed to take you with this sort of complacency!" Wanda shouted angrily.

"Did you call them?" the tall, dark-skinned man asked with a grunt as he made a pushing motion that contracted the blue sphere they had formed around the woman once called Di Wan in order to contain her.

"Cortez said that they were on their way!" Aida gasped, winded slightly from her exertions.

"You can't contain me!" Wanda yelled as she slammed her fist against the wall of rippling blue light again. She was more powerful than them and they all knew it. She might not be as powerful as Lena, Mila, or Oslo, but apart from that particularly high echelon she had few rivals to the scope of her power, and she was known for it. What she was not known for was her patience. She slammed the wall of her newly constructed prison again hard enough to send a jolt through it. "You idiots! If I wanted to hurt you I would have done it by now!"

Suddenly, almost as if on some kind of queue, little Spencer came running in.

"Mommy, Mommy!" he cried out in distress.

"Spencer!" His mother exclaimed, her voice sharp with fear. "Spencer I told you to get to the ship!"

"But Mommy there's something wrong with the sky! It's scary! " the little boy cried from the doorway.

"I know dear, it's smoke. It's alright. We've already called the Saint Nazaire,"

""But it looks different now! There's different colors! Did the bad men do that, too?"

"I don't know dear," Aida told him, torn between keeping their "guest" contained and going to her distressed son. The woman in the bubble looked from the little boy to her keepers and then back again.

"Look, Aida, let me out. I can fight them. I was known for my combat skills," Wanda informed her. The older woman stopped, meeting her gaze for a long, hard moment before glancing around at Spencer.

"We can't trust her,"

"Well to me it doesn't look like you have a choice," Wanda snapped at them. Both of the civilian seijinns stiffened slightly at the edge to her voice. It was the first time that she sounded like a Guardian when talking to them. It made them uneasy about releasing her. She also, unfortunately, had a point for just then there was a series of loud thuds and clatters followed by gruff, muffled voices from down the hall.

"Look at this! Someone's living here!" a man said, "Seijinn, by the look of some of this stuff,"

"Think the boss might want 'em?" another asked, this time sounding as though he were coming closer.

Aida and her neighbor exchanged tense, wide-eyed looks.

"They're in the living room!" Aida hissed, grabbing Spencer and pulling him close to her and looking to her neighbor desperately. "What are we going to do? Where's Cecil? We have to get out of here!"

"For the last time, let me out. You need me," Wanda told them, her voice hard and cold.

The two seijinns looked at each other and then at the door and nodded to each other, lowering the containment sphere of energy. Di Wan dropped to the floor and landed lightly on the balls of her feet, perfectly balanced and apparently ready to fight. She straightened and her hands began to glow before a slight, continual clatter made her and the others in the room turn their heads sharply to see three small, marble-sized, black spheres roll under the door towards them, slowing to a stop in the middle of the three adults. All four of the seijinns frowned until the beeping sound they emitted had them scurrying for an exit just before the balls exploded in a cloud of black smoke.

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"Whoa…" Mahad said in a whisper as the Saint Nazaire approached the block in question. They had never seen anything like it; it was like something out of one of Cheng's comic books. The sky over the little residential block was a swirl of angry looking black, red and purple clouds with flashes of blue slashing through the black void in the middle like lightning.

"What _is_ that?" Cheng asked as he brought up the phenomenon on his translucent yellow screens. The sight of it left everyone tense and, if they were willing to admit it to themselves, stiff with fear. Even Dianne walked up to get a better view from a spot slightly behind Cortez as if in a sort of daze. The effect was almost hypnotic, terrible and yet beautiful at the same time and difficult to look away from. Cortez did not have the luxury of memorization, however and neither did his crew.

"Wayan, Mahad, get to the mosquitoes and deploy, I want us ready for anything. These aren't just any ordinary bandits!"

"I've never seen anything like it!" Cheng exclaimed, his fingers flying over the keyboard.

"Cheng, run scans on that thing with your computers, I want to know everything that you can find out about that thing and contact the Vector to get his input. Everyone else, stand by," The captain barked at them, snapping everyone out of their near trance-like fascination with the anomaly as they hurried to follow his orders and get to work. Dianne also shook her head slightly and started to take a step backwards as though to fade into the shadows, her gaze roving around the room with a strange sort of uncomfortable determination that looked rather guilty to the Captain when a glance over his shoulder to check that Mahad and Wayan were hurrying off afforded him a glimpse of it.

"Anything you'd like to share?" he half growled at her.

"I don't know," she admitted quietly, her tone measured and calculating.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cortez demanded before suddenly changing his mind about whether or not he actually wanted to try and wrestle an answer from her at that point with more immediate matters at hand.

"Captain?" Dahlia prompted, waiting for orders. He let out a long, slow breath and gripped the wheel of the Saint Nazaire as he pondered what to do for a moment, coming to a decision with quick, practiced efficiency. He picked up his radio and pressed the button to talk to his pilot.

"Mahad, change of plans. I want you, Dahlia and Squad One on the ground. Wayan, stay in the air with Squadron Two. Lena, you're going to the surface too. I want you with Kale. Let's see if we can find out what's going on here," he barked. There was a flurry of affirmatives from his crew around him and the blonde pilot jerked her head in a nod as she pressed a few keys to transfer the steering from the helm to the Captain's wheel before jumping to her feet and hurrying off the bridge.

"And you," Cortez started as he glanced over his shoulder to bark an order to Dianne only to see that she had already pushed through the door out to the deck. The captain had to bite back a growl of irritation. For someone who was so determinedly "part of the crew" she had a terrible time following orders. Not that much unlike Mahad when he thought about it. Mahad, however, had a history with the rebels that was both familial and personal. This teenager, in spite of her attitude and actions, did _not_ and it was a risk taking her on with little to no knowledge of who she was or where she had come from. The captain could only hope that his gamble wasn't going to backfire on him as he watched the teenager run across the deck and vault over the side railing and out of sight.

All the captain could do was hope that he hadn't unleashed a loose cannon on their growing movement.

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"I don't like this," Dahlia murmured "It feels too much like Oxford last week,"

"I know," Mahad replied. The two of them were walking side by side with their weapons out and radios strapped close to their shoulders for easy access; Dahlia had her energy bow out and activated, holding the yellow "string" with a bolt already loaded and ready to fire and Mahad's trusty boomerang was clutched in his hand as they neared the basketball court. Upon seeing it in the distance the youth couldn't help but smile a little

"Remember the first time we were here?"

"Duh," Dahlia half snorted. "Hard to forget something like meeting Shinsiki. The kid was cute too,"

"Right. Him," Mahad scoffed, remembering both the kid puking in the backseat of his beloved hyperion and then taking his boomerang. Dahlia just smirked at his tone before her expression quickly became serious when a sudden series of clatters made them jump slightly.

"What was that?" Mahad asked. Dahlia shrugged and shook her head to indicate that she didn't know, tightening her grip on the yellow bow string slightly as they continued forward on tiptoe. They stopped just short of turning around a corner when they heard scuffling and slightly muffled voice that gradually became louder as the speakers began to move towards them.

"Get your ass out here and get moving!" A gruff, gravelly voice barked, his words punctuated by a young child's squeal. A more distant voice answered

"You deal with her then Shanks! Grahh! Stop struggling!" another voice replied to the tune of scuffling as his captive apparently put up a fight.

The blonde took barely a step around the corner towards the noise before rushing back around for cover with Mahad at her side. The pair exchanged a glance that quickly, silently communicated that they had both seen the same thing as they pressed against the side of the wall. The blonde brought her hand up and signaled to her companion silently, prompting a nod of affirmation from the pilot who was closer to the corner. Slowly he inched to the side and leaned his head around to take a quick peak.

A tall, well-muscled, thug-like man was dragging a little boy with dark skin and black hair out from his apparent hiding place kicking and screaming from house with the child literally tucked uner his arm and a large gun held casually in his other hand.

"No! Let me go! Mommy!" Spencer cried. As he flailed against the man who held him literally tucked under his arm the little boy managed to emit a small energy blast; enough to knock his holder off balance and drop him, but unfortunately not enough for him to get away from the others in the group.

"So! We've nabbed ourselves a seijinn! How much d'you think the boss'll spring for him?" another asked.

Mahad tensed and was about to rush them when he felt Dahlia's hand on his shoulder.

"Wait!" She hissed, jerking her head in the direction of a nearby roof "This alley is too narrow. Get a better vantage point,"

The pilot followed her gaze and then nodded in agreement. The blonde looked back at the scene before them and her expression darkened.

"I'll give you a distraction," she said, stepping out from the house they were pressed against and firing a warning shot above the thugs' heads. The group jumped and whipped around with their weapons humming as they were leveled at her. She fired another shot, this one aiming for the shoulder of a particularly muscled man and then dove into a roll to avoid the blasts from the guns aimed at her. She scoffed in disdain at the rather wide miss and fired her bow at the head of the man who held the little boy in his grip.

"Hey! Alley-scum!" She yelled from her cover as the thug tightened his grip on Spencer. The child let out a cry of terror and discomfort. Dahlia's lip curled. Picking on a little kid! She'd show him! "Why don't you—"

"Let. Me. GO_!"_ Another voice interrupted her in an outraged scream as two more thugs came out of the house dragging Di Wan between them.

"You again," Dahlia stated, surprised, though her tone lacked accusation this time. She had expected Di Wan to be either long gone or working with the low-lives. Nevertheless the rebel still let out a growling sigh and rolled her eyes as she mumbled to herself "_Great_,"

The sound of her voice made Di Wan look up and her eyes widen as she strained against the outlaw who held her wrist in an iron, black-gloved grip. She shook her head slightly.

"No…no Dahli! Get out of here!" she exclaimed, again surprising Dahlia. There was genuine concern and fear in the older woman's voice, not that the rebel had any time to dwell on it. Dahlia blinked and then ducked another shot from Spencer's thug, who was now literally holding the squirming boy tucked under one arm. She returned the shot with one from her energy bow that also missed his head and then stole a glance at the former Guardian and frowned slightly when she noted how the other woman was fighting off her captor with a decided absence of blue light. This observation was quickly followed by one that noted how the black gloves that each man wore had tiny spout-like portions at the knuckles which issued tiny amounts of faint black mist. The thug holding spencer followed her gaze and grinned a leering, partially toothless grin at her which told the rebel that dental care in Karzem hadn't been very good apparently

"Like them?" He asked, holding up his free gloved hand as Spencer kicked and thrashed to no avail at his side. "Special new design. Keeps seijinns nice and—graghh!" the man was cut off when a boomerang grazed the side of his head, throwing him off balance and prompting him to reflexively let go of Spencer as he fell to the ground with a loud grunt. The kid had enough sense to scramble to his feet and run out of his grip, though his gaze followed the whooshing sound of the boomerang which had led to his liberation.

The muscle-man grunted as his large fingers went to gingerly touch his forehead in surprise. His eyes widened in anger and disbelief when they came away red and he repeated the motion again, his mouth twisting into a snarl as his gaze snapped up to follow the path of the boomerang as it returned to its master. Mahad was standing on a fire escape that was two stories off the ground. He leaned forward and caught his trusty weapon.

"That should teach you not to mess with the friends of Mahad Farrell!" He exclaimed proudly. Dahlia rolled her eyes as he preened "heroically" for a moment. He was not going to let up on that…though she couldn't help but smirk at it as well. Mahad, of course, managed to notice this and flashed her a grin.

The moment was interrupted when the man holding Di Wan captive let out an exclamation as he joined his companion on the floor somehow; the former guardian had moved in a flash and had him pinned, shoving his arm forward at an odd angle which placed him in a painful lock which prevented him from moving without dislocating the limb.

"Do you really think powers are the only means we have of protecting ourselves?" Di Wan drawled. Her former captor merely growled wordlessly and she smirked down at him, "You underestimate my seijinn strength!"

Dahlia blanched at the phrase which conjured an unnerving memory from a few months ago. She frowned and narrowed her eyes slightly in suspicion though she made no move to shoot the seijinn. Instead, she pointed her bow at the other downed thug, scrutinizing him. His peppered grey hair was shoulder length, shaggy and yanked back into a messy ponytail and his face was haggard and scarred from what looked like years of street fights. The rebel regarded him with a hard brown stare that he returned with a snarl while Mahad made his way down from his perch, his boomerang firmly gripped in his hand as he came to stand next to Dahlia.

"Where's the kid?" he asked her. She jerked her head to indicate that he was behind them. Sure enough, the little boy came to stand next to them.

"Where's your mom, kid?" Mahad asked him.

"They took them out the other door. I don't know where they went," Di Wan said, her captive grunting in pain when she pushed his arm into an even more uncomfortable angle. She leaned over her new captive. "Maybe we should ask _him_,"

The guardian pushed the thug's arm forward a few degrees, causing him to clench his teeth and wheeze out a grunt of pain. The two rebels watched her do this uneasily but weren't in a position where it would be sensible to stop her, at least not at this point. They wouldn't let her torture him, not too badly...they were sure.

"Not…a bad idea," Mahad said carefully, reluctant to agree to anything that the former Guardian might propose. He was torn about where to look; he didn't want to take his gaze off either this new outlaw or his old enemy. He moved to stand next to the blonde rebel. Her bow was still drawn with the bleeding man's head fixed in her target-eye. She didn't look away from her quarry's skull as she spoke to her comrade.

"Mahad, I have a blaster in my belt. Take it,"

"Okay," he agreed. Without a word he walked over and pulled out the weapon, pointing it at the man who had been carrying Spencer under his arm. Dahlia blinked, surprised at the lack of outrageous flirtation. No stupid, inappropriate, eye-roll inspiring comment? Perhaps it was simply a delay? Maybe he was learning, for no such inappropriate remark came. Instead, Mahad spoke to the man on the ground as he approached, trusting Dahlia's aim implicitly.

"So what did he call you? Shanks? Pfft. Nice name,"

"Nice coat," 'Shanks' replied snidely, eyeing the long tan garment. The rebel raised his eyebrow and flicked the collar out with his free thumb.

"I like it. Name's Farrell, by the way. Mahad Farrell," Mahad replied proudly. Dahlia sighed and couldn't help but smile a little. He was going to make the name stick no matter how long it took. Shanks wasn't going to be one to buy it too quickly though. He just laughed as he started to sit up.

"What's so funny?" The teenager demanded hotly.

"You want to tell me that _you're_ Farrell? Ha! You're a _kid_. Nothing but a kid with a toy and a coat," he sneered

"He's not a kid," Dahlia snapped before even thinking about it, surprising herself more than anyone with her outburst.

"He's not Farrell either. Know how I know? I met him," Shanks declared.

"What?" Mahad, Dahlia and Di Wan all said at once, the statement having got their attention. Shanks grinned.

"You heard me," He said, moving his hands and feet under him "I said I met—NOW! MOVE!" Shanks bellowed as he dove for Mahad in one quick motion and knocked the blaster out of his hand, grabbing him by the throat in a choke hold. Dahlia let out a cry of mingled alarm and anger, her fingers tensing on her bowstring as she pulled it back with more force as the brute wrestled the teenager around into a choke hold with one burly arm across his neck and his other hand atop the rebel's head, his threat clear.

"Didn't think you'd shoot me," Shanks growled into Mahad's ear as the young man struggled against him. "Maybe you would have if you'd had to, I don't know, most of us would— but you're not a natural. It's not your instinct,"

"Let him go!" Dahlia ordered as she took a slight side-step towards them and pulled the yellow energy-string back a further fraction, her threat equally clear. "Fair warning, I'm a good shot,"

"How good?" Shanks sneered, "Willing to bet _his_ life on it? So tell me, how much do you think my boss is willing to spring for this pain in his ass? Should be pretty good leverage against that little crew of yours, never mind his little sister…" The outlaw said as he backed away, dragging a gasping Mahad with him as the younger man struggled for air against the pressure on his windpipe.

"Dahl—" the rebel wheezed before being cut off by Shank flexing his forearm and increasing the pressure on his windpipe

"Shut up! You're easier to deal with than Seijinns, anyway. Don't think he'll mind one bit, either. He doesn't like you, my boss. Now you, other blondie," he said, looking at Di Wan. The designation caught her a little off guard; she still didn't think about the dark gold fuzz atop her scalp which now covered much of her tattoo.

"Let my friend up or I'll snap this one's neck,"

"Who says she's with us? Why give her the decision?" Dahlia demanded, unable to keep a hint of fear out of her voice. Mahad was as good as dead. Unless the brute _really_ wanted his prize alive and was bluffing, he was dead. There was no way Di Wan was going to do anything to help Mahad for anything—

"Fine," A voice said exasperatedly from behind her. The rebel's eyes widened in surprise and the blonde archer's head whipped around to stare at the older woman, blinking in surprise and then narrowing her eyes in suspicion. She voiced neither her shock nor her wariness as the former guardian released Shank's 'friend" with a cruel shove, however.

"I can't _believe_ I'm doing this," The Guardian grumbled under her breath as she came to stand next to Dahlia in an apparent display of a united front, fuming as she gave her a side-long glance. "This had better be worth my while, _sister_,"

The slightly smaller man scrambled to his feet and staggered over to where his buddy stood ready to snap the young rebel's neck as he was threatening to. Dahlia didn't dare loose an energy arrow for fear of hitting her friend and everyone knew it so she lowered her bow and relaxed her grip on it slightly. Di Wan ground her teeth.

"You have your friend, now let him go," Dahlia said calmly.

"You kidding? Didn't you hear me? My boss won't care that we let those two go if we have _him_," Shanks said, backing away and dragging Mahad with him. His friend picked up their dropped weapons and handed a blaster to him which he pressed against his captive's temple, an even easier threat to carry out. The rebel had expected him to say and do as much, but that didn't make her any less angry as he sneered at her "Later blondie,"

With that he hauled the struggling Mahad around the same corner and out of sight with a strangled yell of protest from the rebel. Dahlia ground her teeth as she released her bowstring and deactivated it to grip in one hand as she snatched out her radio with the other.

"Oh no you don't!" She growled as she started to run after them, putting her radio up to her mouth, "Lena! Come in!"

8888888

Dianne landed on the block from her leap with a slight thud, landing in a crouched position with her fingertips lightly tapping the ground as her coat swished around her, stray strands of hair falling forward to frame her face. She barely took a moment to allow her body to absorb the force of the landing. She didn't really need to, but she'd take the opportunity to center herself; she had to fight as herself this time. She was determined to. Her pale eyes slowly rose from the floor to stare at the faintly glowing cloud-cover, knowing full well what lay behind that veil of clouds, even if the others couldn't see it. She straightened slowly and then took off at a break-neck pace, leaping into the air to land on the upper level of a building, hopping from one roof to the next in a mad dash across them.

She slowed on the roof of one that gave her a view of the basketball court when she saw the soldiers approaching: soldiers whose movements were far too robotic considering they belonged to human bodies and soldiers who didn't belong in this time any more than she did. Soldiers who all wore identical masks: all but one. There was one mask which was tinted with blue instead of black, indicating that the Drone in question had once been a seijinn. Dianne frowned slightly, her psychic senses reaching out and making her shudder when she brushed against the imprisoned psyche.

"No…" she half whimpered, taking a half-step in the direction of the court. "No, you were supposed to be protected! _Celia_…Skyland! Does Cheng even _know_?"

_Does the traitor even care anymore? He's been their puppet longer than— _

"That's enough," Dianne snapped at the hovering specter. The Phoenix was rattling at its cage inside her head.

_Yes. It is. _It agreed unexpectedly,_ I say we get the Leech. Now._

The young woman blinked slightly at the unusual communion between the two of them and was about to throw herself whole-heartedly into the venture immediately when something that she had noticed started to nag at her. She frowned and paused again in her steps before cocking her head slightly as she stared down at the zombified troops.

"It's weird that we're on the same page for once...but where are _they_ going? What are they even doing here?" she muttered

_Please. We both know what they're here for. What they're always here for. He wants us and he'll never stop hunting us until he's in his grave. Let's put him there._

Dianne had to concede that and nodded with a shrug.

"Fair point," she muttered "But we don't want _them_ to interfere, no one knows how to fight them yet,"

_Ugggnnn! Come ON! If you're so worried about it then just let me out! I'll take care of it for you…_It trailed off suggestively.

"Not happening," Dianne growled. The Phoenix threw a tantrum at that and rattled at the bars of its mental cage, causing the teenager to stumble and clutch her head. She ground her teeth and clenched her fists, her whole body tensing as she doubled over, twitching, her eyes sporadically flashing blue as the pulsating glow over her skin intensified briefly.

"I. Said. NO!" Dianne exclaimed as her arms exploded out to the sides, sending a blast of energy out to slam into a bucket that toppled noisily to the ground, clattering off various ledges and then rolling along the street. She cringed at the continuing sounds it made.

"Oops," she murmured to herself, picking up her pace to clear the area that was guaranteed to attract attention now, even of the soldiers who might just think to look up. Just then a shadow fell over her and the section of block she was standing on as the faintly glowing section of cloud cover briefly gave way to a massive spherical ship with an protruding balcony sticking out the side like a planetary ring that approached before it flickered out of sight again. Well. They fixed their cloaking device quickly but…it was strange. They didn't dismantle _The Zenith_ to send out any of the built-in patrollers. It seemed they thought they could do their mission with simple foot soldiers and one overbearing ship. Well. Good for them for keeping up their ego. Now the only question was whether or not she'd have to fight her way to her adversary. It was time to end this; end it now and then prevent any of it from ever happening. _Ever_.

Dianne could sense him long before she saw him and the anger inside her fought to escape and wreak the havoc it craved with this hated ship as the voice in her head egged her on. Her muscles bunched as she crouched low and then exploded into the air with a burst of seijinn energy that catapulted her into the sky, the overwhelming urge that the Phoenix was pushing prompting her to ignore her good sense about her complete lack of planning, not that she was really thinking about anything other than making her pursuer pay for everything that he had done to her and to her family by this point.

Her power boost got her up high enough to grab the ledge of the ship's weird balcony-thing and push herself up over the side, her foot whipping around in a tight arc to deliver a sharp kick to the soldier that stood guard there, knocking him off his feet. She once again landed in a crouched position but straightened more quickly this time, leaning to the side as she did so to avoid the grabbing hands of the 'zombies'. When one of them managed to get a firm grip on her loosely-fitted coat she put all of her weight into slamming him backwards against the balcony and then twisted out of it without thinking, only to see that the soldier had lost his balance and was falling overboard, still clutching her coat. The young seijinn's eyes widened and she rushed towards the ledge herself, stretching out in vain for the man with her powers before being distracted by his partner again. She snapped her head around at the sound of him getting up and tensed the muscles in her neck, a surge of seijinn energy sending him crashing into the wall and holding him there with little effort as she glanced over the side again. The soldier who had pilfered her coat had fallen to the block with what had sounded like a painful crunch, still alive and still in possession of that damned _coat_. If they found it…

"I'll get it back later," Dianne promised herself before using her powers to force open a door on the wall and send her captive hurtling inside. She frowned at the door with intense concentration, carefully negotiating with the Phoenix as she reached out a tensed hand and clawed her fingers, twisting her brightly glowing, pulsating hand. The door started to glow and then started twisting, welding itself shut. The young seijinn stepped back and admired her work for a moment and then took off along the deck, her pulsating arms turning her into a veritable beacon making her way around the edge of the monstrosity. 'Zombies tried to get in her way a few times to no avail; she didn't even break her stride as she used her powers to toss them back and, strangely enough, they didn't follow her.

Dianne slowed and started to walk slowly on the balls of her feet, making as little noise as possible and staying close to the wall, pressing against it when she started to hear the low hum of voices. No, not voice_s_. Voice. Singular. There was only the one person talking and he was talking with that arrogant, sneering tone that sent chills down her spine even as she craned her neck around to catch a glimpse.

"How very interesting that the device should send us here…" Oslo purred as he looked down on the scene below, no doubt enjoying the voyeurism of the act when none on the other side of the balcony could see them. He was surrounded by his own set of masked soldiers—how many had he brought with him exactly?—and stood with his hands clasped casually behind his back "Release the patrollers. Full cloaks. Let us see what happens with these pirates at the height of their arrogance,"

The floor beneath them lurched as several smaller ships broke away and disengaged from the _Zenith_; it was a special feature that Oslo had personally ordered according to rumors. Dianne didn't have the interest in rumors, however, all she cared about was that the feature existed and was again threatening the people she loved.

"You're one to talk about arrogance," She muttered under her breath. That was when she saw it. It was set into the panel above his head: a small, black, rectangular computer device inlaid with the same circuitry design that the masks on the 'Zombies featured. A controller! She'd been trying to get her hands on one of those things for years! It didn't tell the Sphere's Drones what to do, per se, but it did tell them who to listen to. She wondered just how well Oslo would do without his little army…

She wondered too long and was too focused on the idea that she almost didn't sense one of the soldiers she'd encountered on her trip up to this point coming behind her. When she did she whipped around in time to see the weapon pointed at her and dove to the ground instinctively while firing an energy blast at him that sent him hurling down across the deck.

The move had the desired achievement though and she knew it; she was right in the open…and Oslo was staring right at her with that calm, smug, spine-shilling smirk that his mini-plan had worked so well. He'd known that she was aboard since she'd jumped onto the deck. It was why none of her "attackers" had followed her. He had been waiting for his prize to come to him.

"I must say, you certainly are growing up into a lovely young woman, _Lena_." The white-clad dictator said smoothly, looking her over appreciatively, his gaze lingering on the incandescent, pulsating veins and the rushes of blue light down her arms as she slowly got to her feet and tossed her head to get a few loose strands of hair out of her face. "I do believe you've grown again since I saw you,"

The time-travelling Lena didn't respond to that. _He_ was exactly as she remembered him from their previous encounter: short, mustard-blonde hair, pasty white skin and cruel, sharp silvery eyes. Once again the veins around his eyes had a vague luminescence to them that she knew came from draining other seijinns. The thought sent chills down her spine. He'd haunted her nightmares often enough: her own personal boogey man. Her fear, however, quickly turned into rage and there was a familiar stirring inside her head. She shifted one foot back and turned her body to the side slightly without taking her eyes off him and crouched slightly in a fighter's stance, igniting her arms from fingertip to elbow in seijinn flame.

"You want a fight Oslo?" she asked in a low, dangerous tone. Her eyes flashed a solid blue as the Phoenix struggled to surface, feeding (as it always did) off her rage. "Well you've got one. This time, I'm not running,"

"I wouldn't expect anything less." Oslo replied sleekly with a smug smirk on his face. "I hadn't thought it was your choice to flee last time. Didn't …someone _else_ make that decision for you?"

Lena's expression darkened, her nostrils flared at the well placed taunt.

"You don't know anything about me," she hissed at him, the generator-like movement of seijinn light over her arms intensifying and the skin tightening over muscles and veins in her neck and jaw until they, too started to protrude and pulsate as she started to slowly walk toward him.

"After spending so much time with your dear mother? I'd have to disagree. I think I know a great deal about you, Lena,"

"You don't play *_smart*_, do you?" Lena growled, her voice briefly assuming an echoing quality on the word 'smart'. She jerked her head to the side in one sharp motion as though to dispel the brief flash of blue that momentarily flitted across her eyes. The two of them fell into step with one another along a wide circle. "Pissing me off is really not a good idea. Trust me when I tell you that _I'm_ the one you want to talk to,"

"And why is that?" Oslo inquired.

"'Cause I'm not the one who's going to kill you," she replied frankly "And It _will_,"

"I'm sure it would like to try. It's already killed before, hasn't it? I must say, that clean up was quite something" he purred. Lena paused in her steps and practically flinched at his words, her eyes widening slightly in horror-tinged uncertainty. She knew what mess he was talking about. She'd heard of it, but had no memory of making it… just as she had no memory of most things that the Phoenix did when it commandeered her body.

"Your mother was quite horrified to hear of it," Oslo continued. His mistake. The horror on her face vanished to be replaced again by anger.

"You _stop talking about her_!" Lena half-snarled half-screamed. The pulse of blue light sped across her skin until it was a generator-like whir of color.

"It took a great deal of convincing before she finally admitted anything concerning you,"

"Shut up!"

"Such a shame. She has always been so stubborn. When I first encountered her I underestimated her will power. It took considerable effort to—"

The dictator was cut off by a bird's shriek of rage as the teenager dove for him, the veins in her face fully raised, her features twisted into a snarl and her fingers tensing around into claw-like shapes that reached for him even as an explosion of seijinn energy started to head his way. She barely made it halfway across the divide between them, however, when a black blast struck her shoulder a fraction of a second before a length of black cord attached to two black balls slapped around both her wrists, lashing them together. She slammed to the ground just as Oslo threw up a shield that barely managed to protect him against the energy attack. The veins from her face receded almost on impact so that when she looked up it was with a far more human face and eyes.

Lena grimaced widely at the pain in her shoulder from the jolt of raw exelerium and jerked against the whipcord around her wrists with a slight grunt, failing to dislodge the ties. Her eyes widened when she saw the misty black smoke issuing from it and scuttled backwards frantically, dragging her bound wrists on the ground between her feet as though to keep them as far away from her as possible. It was no use though; the substance inside the two hollow balls of the bola was hissing out into the air around her. She held her breath for as long as she could whilst struggling to get them off but eventually was forced to give in to her body's demand for air, only have her throat scorched by the murky black smoke.

She coughed and gasped, her bound hands going automatically to her throat as she choked on the stuff. The bright blue light that lit up her skin became erratic, flashing and winking in and out and fizzling over her skin as though it were some kind of blue electricity as the raised veins throbbed painfully and then receded into her skin for the most part as Lena curled in on herself. Just as she started to black out, however, there was a slight whirring sound and the gaseous form of the substance was retracted back into the small black spheres, leaving her wheezing and gasping for nearly a full minute. When her vision cleared enough to see she looked around at the familiar people surrounding her. They might have hidden parts of their faces, but she knew them. Oslo had made sure of that.

Kale. Cedric. Lucas. Thom. Natalie.

None of them looked at her. None of them could, of course. All of them stared ahead blankly, unseeing. Just when she thought she couldn't feel any angrier an entirely new bubble of rage started to rise in her throat.

"Is this how you thought you'd keep _it_ from tearing you to pieces?" She demanded in a venomous whisper punctuated by a sudden yank of her wrists as she clenched her hands into fists "How you would keep me from _letting_ it? By surrounding yourself with human _shields_?!" she lifted her head and met his gaze, doing her best not to look at Kale as the ex-gladiator robotically walked around behind her with one of his masked comrades. Each of them grabbed one of her arms and hauled her back up to her feet.

"It won't work you know," she growled as her two captors started to try and muscle her towards a third.

"It doesn't have to for very long," Oslo retorted, prompting Lena to look as the brown-haired soldier started walking forward. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw the collar that a masked Natalie held out towards her. Her pulse raced and her breathing quickened as she struggled against her two captors in a wild panic, dark hair flying around her in front of her face. Dimly in the back of her mind she registered Oslo ordering them to "stop her squirming" right before Kale reached one hand back to grab a fistful of hair at the back of her head and yank backwards to bare her neck.

"No! NO!" She gasped, eyes darting wildly around her as Natalie approached with the open collar "No—Kale please! _Kale NOOOoooOO_!" Her whimper quickly turned into a drawn-out scream as the metal closed around her neck with a snap and the masked woman in front of her pressed the center button to activate it.

The effect was instantaneous. There were several sharp stabbing pains as the little spikes sank into her neck like tiny teeth followed by the burning sensation as the black liquid entered her blood system. All remaining traces of the blue glow on her body vanished, like a flame that had been snuffed out. Inside her head the Phoenix shrieked in alarm and then became alarmingly silent as it retreated deep within the safety of its mental cage where she knew it would seethe and cower and simmer until it was safe for it to come out again, like an animal hiding from an even bigger predator. It would never die but did leave her with a feeling of complete solitude and vulnerability as well as a litany of physical discomforts that would only become more apparent over time. She was barely aware of one of her two captors releasing her arm and the other—Kale she was sure—taking a hold of both her arms, holding up almost all of her weight as he half- dragged-half carried her over to Oslo.

"You're an idiot," she growled at the dictator, longing to wipe the smirk off his face, the odd silence in her mind was far more disturbing than it should have been. He looked her over again smugly. Her hair had completely escaped its ties with much of it hanging over and obscuring her face. Her bright silver-blue eyes stared at him with mingled fear and hatred. Her lip curled at their proximity to each other.

"You can't keep my powers contained forever…you can't keep me in a cage! You don't have a good track record with my family with that," she hissed at him. He chuckled and reached out a hand to brush the dark locks away from her face, noting the way she went rigid and strained away futilely from the touch.

"We shall see,"

"And the second, the _second, _that my powers are back _It_ is going to come and it is going to be _furious_! And you know what else?" Lena half-growled as Kale dragged her forward along with Oslo to a slightly raised, circular platform with a console.

"What?" The dictator asked in a tone he no doubt thought was indulgent whilst he pressed several buttons.

"I'm not just going to let it kill you. I'm going to _help_ it," she informed him. Oslo raised an eyebrow and turned to look at her. She didn't turn and instead gave him a sidelong glance that could kill on its own. He huffed slightly in apparent amusement.

"How I would love to see what is inside your head," he practically purred.

"You mean like you forced your way into my mother's head?" Lena shot back. At the slight look of surprise on his face she narrowed her eyes in hate "Yeah, I know about that. Well good luck. No one has shields better than mine. I guess you could try now—" she held up her wrists and cocked her head to the side, narrowing her eyes in an antagonistic expression "But, oh wait. _You can't_. Exelerium does as much to your powers as it does to any seijinn, doesn't it, _Commander? _It's why you need your muscle men every time you come after me!"

There was a long pause at that, much to her satisfaction. She knew he hated having to admit any kind of weakness and as such she loved to remind him of it.

"You have a great deal of your father in you," Oslo said almost quietly. Lena smirked and the Dictator straightened his back even more rigidly as his temper rose "Don't look so pleased with yourself it is no compliment! The Farrells have never been anything but arrogant outlaws!"

"We've always managed to beat you! How many years are we working on now, how many generations?" she snapped back before her tone became snide "No one in my family has _ever_ bowed down to you and I'm not about to break such a proud tradition,"

"Perhaps on your father's side. Your mother's, on the other hand…"

"Don't you dare talk about her unless you're going to tell me what you've done to her!" The teenager growled without looking at him as she glared off into the distance. She was aware of him looking at her, staring at her, his eyes studying her profile for several long moments. It made her skin crawl.

"One day you will see that I have only your best interests at heart, Lena," he finally replied, two of the Drones coming up to flank him.

"Is that on or after the day hell freezes over?" the teenager shot back, whipping her head around to glare at him with the full force of her hate stabbing at him through her eyes. He was likely fortunate that both she and her little inner demon were securely chained, otherwise that look might literally have killed him, or at the very least done put forth its most vicious effort. Oslo shook his head slightly in an almost amused manner and pushed a few buttons on the console, prompting the platform to disengage from the rest of the ship with a slight, strange little lurch. Lena stumbled even though Kale was really the one holding her up and frowned, looking around herself in confusion as they rose into the air.

"What—where are we going? What are you doing?" she demanded before she could stop herself. Her captor smirked as he activated his refined version of the Blue Sky program to cloak the platform so that they were, like the ship, invisible to the outside world—and to the small pod-like ships that were scrapping in the air as the Mosquitoes took on the ships that the ex-convicts had acquired somehow.

"If my calculations are correct the Lady of Light should be making her first appearance in the next few minutes. I always regretted missing the show,"

"So why bring me along? To gloat? Bad idea," Lena scoffed

"Call it…curiosity," he said.

"Curiosity killed the cat," the teenager quipped snidely as they moved through the air.

* * *

><p><strong>A.N: And there we go! I finally got an update posted! Please leave a review and tell me what you think, etc.<strong>

**Hope you liked!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Yay! I'm going to post this before midnight! I got this chapter in before 2013! So to those of you still sticking with this thing, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Love you ladies and Gentlemen for sticking with me :) On that topic, funny thing about re-writes, (for me) they almost always end up being longer than the original as I add in some storylines and stuff so this was another one that ended up running away from me. Therefore in hindsight I'm glad I split this one into two chapters as the second half of this is longer than the first! So a nice long, action-packed chapter to reward you for your patience :) Please leave me a review**

**Warning, there is some profanity in this one. Nothing serious, but just in case.**

**Chapter 15**

"Lena! Do you read me? Lena!" Dahlia snapped into the radio as she followed the three men across the block. Bargaining for his friend had been a good idea on Shanks' part; she could hear him ordering the other man about and directing him to make obstacles for her. Shanks was definitely the brains in the duo as well as the alpha. They ducked through a house and locked the door behind them, forcing her and Di Wan to waste precious seconds breaking down the door even as Lena's voice sounded over the radio as Di Wan put out a hand to the door frame to steady herself as she took a moment to try and catch her breath, wincing against lingering pain that flared up badly with over exertion.

"_What is it Dahlia?" _the young girl asked. Dahlia continued running alone as she brought the radio back up to her mouth.

"More of those Karzem-guys are here and—arghh!" The rebel cut herself off with a cry when a large section of chain-link fence was thrown at her, causing her to lose her footing and drop her radio. She struggled getting the thing off her for several moments whilst Lena yelled her name in concern on the other side of the radio. It took her nearly half a minute muttering under her breath.

"How did he even _throw_ this thing?!" She grumbled as she crawled out from under the section of fence and snatched up the radio.

"_Dahlia? Dahlia, what happened? Can you hear me?" _ Lena asked

"Lena, listen to me, more of those guys from Oxford! They've got Mahad!" Dahlia told her as she started running again. There was a brief silence on the other end and the blonde could practically see the young seijinn stop in her tracks and clutch her radio in her hand.

"_Where_?"

"I think we're heading to the basketball court!"  
>"<em>I'm on my way," <em>The young seijinn stated coldly as her end of the line went dead. The blonde was far from worried as she sprinted towards the receding figures, ignoring the incessant calls of her name behind her. She slowed to a jog and then a walk when she saw that her quarry had stopped and whipped out her energy bow again, activating it.

"You think we're just going to let you walk off with him?" Dahlia demanded.

"What we? Your little buddies are busy in their little ship—" Shanks' friend never got to finish his sentence before a rather large energy blast sent him flying into the air and slamming into a nearby rooftop. He slid down the slope and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap that he was slow to move from, bringing down a few shingles with him. In the same moment the blaster that Shanks held to Mahad's temple was yanked away by an invisible force to land several meters away. The clatter this made was swiftly followed by a slight whooshing sound and a dull thud as Lena plummeted from the air to land in a crouched position between Dahlia and the two men. Her arms were a glaringly bright blue that radiated angrily.

_"_Let go of my big brother!" Lena bellowed angrily as she straightened slowly and clenched her hands into fists in a motion much like the one she had made when she'd burst into the Gladiator arena to save him before.

Shanks reacted by whipping out a knife from his belt and holding it up to his captive's throat, ready to open it at the slightest move. The outlaw grinned, flashing uneven rows of yellow teeth that were studded with false teeth made from some sort of metal. He let out a laugh and seemed genuinely amused about something even as he re-adjusted his grip on his prisoner in response to the Pilot's squirming for purchase against his powerful choke hold. None of the rebels shared the convict's amusement, and neither did the young woman who had followed Dahlia at a slight distance in her chase and who had slipped into a building to watch from an upper floor window discreetly.

"You _are_ a little thing, aren't you?" he said, looking Lena over in slight disbelief "_How_ old are you?"

"None of your business! Now let my brother go or you'll be sorry!" Lena said angrily, her temper approaching a boiling point. If there was one thing she didn't take well it was having her brother threatened. As it was her vision was tunneling on the man who held him captive and it was therefore Dahlia who noticed the movement where the downed man started to stir.

"Lena," the blonde started to warn before Shanks' talking cut her off.

"Thing is Sweetheart, I think I kinda need him. Insurance, you understand?"

"No," Lena snapped. "We worked _too hard_ to put our family back together! I'm not letting you take my brother away!"

"Lena, look out!" Dahlia yelled as she saw the downed man get up and throw something, loosing an energy arrow at him and hitting her target, but not before he managed to throw something. A small, tennis-ball sized metallic sphere crashed at Lena's feet and started to spew a black, milky smoke. The young seijinn cried out and stumbled back in alarm to get away from the stuff and threw her arm up to press her nose into the crook of her elbow to keep from inhaling the stuff. The blonde rushed forward to kick the contraption away from her younger friend, kicking it across the basketball court so that it rolled off the block.

"Lena!" Mahad wheezed when his little sister tripped over something and stumbled to the ground coughing. He strained against his captor's hold even when the knife bit into the skin of his neck and drew blood, which he ignored. "Lena, are you okay? Lena!"

"Geez! Aren't you the drama queen?" Shanks growled with an eye roll. Lena sat up, still coughing, but didn't get to her feet. She looked down at the hand she had been about to attack with and blinked when she saw it flickering, her powers fizzing uncontrollably much like they had when she had first encountered the substance on the Callisto. Her head whipped up and she glared at the two outlaws as Shanks lankier friend came to stand next to him, tossing two more spheres up and down in his hand casually with an irritating sneer on his face.

"Not bad Roy," Shanks laughed. So they had a name for the friend now too. "Doesn't make up for you losing that Seijinn, though. You're taking the heat from the boss for that,"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. So long as you didn't lose that thing he gave you," Roy waved him off before turning his attention to Dahlia and sneering at her "So what's it gonna be, blondie? Your little seijinn there don't dare use her powers with this around and one wrong move and we'll rip open your boyfriend's throat. He's more use to us alive, of course, but…"

Inwardly Dahlia seethed, but knew when she was beaten, and when her enemy knew it too. With the press of a button she retracted the golden limbs of the bow and took a half step forward, out of any kind of fighting stance, but still between them and Lena slightly. Aside from them being her friends she was also the ranking rebel here and they were her responsibility, after all.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"We want guaranteed safe passage out of here without your little rebel friends interfering—" Shanks started

"We want a word with your captain," Roy interrupted. "We might be willing to make a trade. So why don't you just call him up?"

Dahlia set her jaw and nodded once, reaching for her radio and bringing it to her mouth.

"Dahlia to Cortez," she said "Dahlia to Cortez, come in,"

"_Cortez here," _The captain said "_What is it, Dahlia?" _

"We…have a problem," She said.

"Give it to Roy," Shanks growled. The blonde rebel glared at him but nevertheless threw Roy the radio. He caught it easily and brought it up to his mouth.

"Hello _Captain_," he said "My friend and I have your precious little _Farrell_ brat in a grip he can't get out of by himself, how about a little reunion with your old mates?"

"You _know_ these guys Cortez?" Mahad wheezed through ground teeth. There was a brief moment of silence on the other end of the radio before the voice of their captain said haltingly over the radio

"_Who am I talking to_?"

"You knew me as Julian. Ringing any bells, _Aran_? Huh?" Roy half-shouted into the radio.

"Julian?" Lena repeated softly from her seat on the ground with a slight, perplexed frown on her face. She knew that name…

"_That's…that's not possible_," Cortez said.

"Believe it _Old Friend_," Shanks half-yelled to ensure that he would be heard over the radio, his voice thick with disdain "And believe that my new friend won't hesitate to scratch up Marcus's brats or your pretty little blonde friend and I don't control him! Even if I did I wouldn't stop him,"

There was another pause as Cortez apparently maneuvered the to avoid one of the smaller ships in their catfights in the air before his voice again echoed around them.

"_What are ye're terms_?" Roy or "Julian" pressed the button and opened his mouth to start talking again when his companion cut him off.

"Uh uh," Shanks growled, gripping the knife more tightly to Mahad's throat "We keep him for the boss or he's our ticket out of here. I talk to this guy face to face,"

"_Fine_," Cortez said over the radio before Roy/Julian could say anything. "_Where are you_?"

"The Basketball Court,"

Dahlia could practically see her Captain clench his teeth before  
>"<em>On my way," <em>

With that there was the clicking sound of the radio on the other end terminating the current transmission. The man who had introduced himself as both Roy and Julian threw Dahlia back her radio. She caught it easily and replaced it in her belt. None of them noticed the fight between the smaller ships above them turned a tide and one of the second-hand, smaller ships that the outlaws were using had an engine explode right above them, sending everyone stumbling backwards away from the wreckage. Mahad seized the opportunity the moment Shanks' grip on him loosened to get a hold of the fist clenching the knife and stomping down on the man's instep hard, twisting out of his grip, crying out when the blade still scratched along his jaw but nonetheless getting out of arms' reach and twirling towards his sister and friend. Dahlia's jaw dropped when she saw that the ship was heading straight for Lena and lunged to the side to shove the younger girl away from its path. She overshot the lunge and the force of her shove, however, and ended up sprawled on her stomach, her pants catching on the very thing that Lena had tripped over; a long coil of old wire fencing, catching around her leg and leaving her in the immediate path of the crashing ship.

"_NOO_**_!" _**

Three voices shouted in horrified unison. Lena and Mahad's eyes widened as time slowed for them to an agonizing crawl as the ship headed straight for the rebel even as she struggled to free herself and crawl away, eventually throwing her arms up over her head and curling in on herself in the basest, instinctual attempt to shield herself from the impact.

An impact which didn't come. After a few seconds Dahlia opened her eyes and looked up to see the ship with the burning engine surrounded by an eerie blue light, hovering about three feet above her head. This was becoming a situation which was happening too often in short spans of time these days. When the ship moved, however, she got a shock.

Di Wan stood at the base of a nearby building surrounded by broken glass from the window she had smashed in her haste to reach the basketball court. She held her glowing hands up and moved them slowly, her body and face rigid with concentration and exertion. The ship obediently followed the path she laid out for it as she carefully hovered the hunk of metal a good distance away from the Dahlia before releasing it with a loud, resounding cacophony of metal impacting the ground. Once she released the ship she fell to her knees, panting and shaking. She raised her head to meet Dahlia's eye.

"You alright?" she panted. Dahlia blinked and nodded, wordlessly. Di Wan nodded in return before briefly turning her head towards Lena. "Don't like Excelerium either, do you?"

The rebels shot her a dirty look and Lena ground her teeth. What she would never tell Di Wan about was the rush of relief and gratitude and her intervention. She hadn't been in the vicinity of the localized mini-bomb; she had been free to exercise her abilities. It was an odd and uncomfortable position, owing Di Wan that kind of debt.

The moment was intense enough that it even seemed to hold their adversaries' attention for a moment, a moment that Dahlia as an experienced Guerrilla fighter seized upon. Within a heartbeat she had reactivated and drawn her bow in a lightning-quick motion. In the next, Roy wheezed and stumbled to the ground clutching the shoulder where her energy bolt had struck him and the brief spell was ended.

88888888888888899999999999988888888

What the rebels didn't know what that they were being observed. Somewhere between the firefight of the ships and the action on the block hovered the cloaked platform containing several time travelers, only two of them unmasked. The dark haired teenager let out a small, breathy sound of fear and staggered forward against a masked Kale's grip when she saw the stray shot from the ship exploding so close to Mahad and Dahlia, her face twisted in helpless fear. She closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief when Wanda intervened before feeling her breath catch again at the sight of one of the small ships going down and heading straight for the square where so many of the rebels were concentrated and her breath caught in her throat again. A light out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and she whipped her head around to see Oslo's hand glowing as he made a sharp movement that subtly redirected the crashing ship so that it barely grazed the edge of the block before disappearing beneath the ground-line.

Lena frowned and narrowed her eyes at the slight, calm scowl of concentration on Oslo's face as he slowly lowered his hand and brought it to clasp the other behind his back in one of his typical positions. Her eyes followed that hand and stopped when she saw the rectangular device attached to his belt. The controller she had been so distracted by on the bridge must have been a decoy. How could she have so stupid? Of course he wouldn't let that thing out of his sight! It wasn't as if she were dealing with that idiot, Poe!

She caught Oslo watching her and looked away sharply, giving him only angry, side-long glances and setting her jaw stubbornly. She heard him chuckle and started to simmer, only to feel a slight twinge of hope to realize that he thought she was still looking at the hand he had lowered, a hand which—much like her own without the effects of exelerium—had veins which were raised and glowing.

"You wonder why I saved them?"

"I hope you aren't expecting me to thank you," She grumbled.

"I believe it is customary when one rescues your—"

"Oh please! It's in your best interests for them to survive this" Lena cut him off in a cynical drawl, looking him in the eye at this "Don't pretend you did it out of some kind of gesture. It changes nothing,"

Oslo smirked at her and shook his head fondly as he returned his attention to the scene below.

88888999888

By the time Cortez had had the remaining crew of the Saint Nazaire drop him off one the block the fight was pretty much over with the convicts once again retreating and without much success on their part; both Spencer's mother, their neighbor and his daughter had all apparently escaped their clutches. When Cortez walked over to them both Roy/Julian and Shanks were standing in the middle of the basketball court with their own blasters out, staring down their potential victims defiantly with Roy nursing one shoulder. Lena stood with her brother, clearly angry and unsettled at the close call and Cortez could guess why; the captain couldn't help but notice the long, bloody cut along the pilot's jaw which was dripping onto his red shirt, only just missing staining his father's coat. He reached up with one hand and wiped at the blood on his jaw with the heel of his hand, smearing it.

"You alright Mahad?" the captain asked

"Oh yeah, I'm fine," Mahad assured him, glancing down at the blood on his hand in apparent surprise. "Hey! He actually cut me? Hey! I wonder if I'll get a cool scar…"

The other rebels rolled their eyes at him fondly before returning their attention to the two who had been threatening them. Cortez's jaw dropped ever so slightly and his eyes widened when he saw Roy.

"I didn't quite believe it when I heard yer voice over the radio, but…is that really you Julian?"

"Julian…wait a minute! Mahad, do you remember that block that we got stuck on with Oslo? The one with the symbiont?" Lena started. Her brother nodded, still looking at the man who had introduced himself as 'Roy'

"Yeah, Father's message. In the full thing he mentioned someone named Julian and—"

"De-La-Vega," Julian finished for him, his good hand tightening on his blaster "So you did find that thing, huh? Interesting. What did you have to say about that then, Cortez?"

"Cortez never saw it. Just my brother and me," Lena told him, her hand jerking slightly as her powers continued to act up even after getting out of the excelerium cloud, she didn't know why.

"Huh," Julian huffed. "Well, maybe the Ass was right about that then. You never got it,"

"No. You and Marcus and the rest of the crew just disappeared. Where were you?"

"In jail, where do you think? We were shot down by the Sphere and thrown in Karzem,"

"Karzem?" Mahad exclaimed "You mean…Dad's been in Karzem this whole time? He really is alive?"

"Don't know, don't care. I haven't seen him in years and good riddance if he _is_ dead,"

"How dare you—"

"Easy, Mahad!" Cortez barked at him before the pilot could lunge forward and get himself back into trouble.

"We don't have time for this!" Shanks growled, not happy about losing his spot at the center of attention or as the apparent alpha.

"Shut up, Shanks! What do you think we have time for?" Julian snapped

"What about the rock? We were supposed to test that thing or something, weren't we?"

"Not now!"

"I say now! We didn't get to do it on any of the other seijinns and we have two here," Shanks replied. Mahad, Dahlia and Cortez immediately moved between them and Lena but before they could do anything the larger of the two convicts had reached into the pocket of his trousers and hurled something their way. The pilot shoved his sister behind him and hurled his boomerang at them before the missile landed and they all froze in apparent disbelief.

It was a rock.

_Literally _arock.

"That's it?" Dahlia asked against her better judgment. The other rebels also relaxed their rigid posture slightly and frowned in curiosity. Di Wan, too, was apparently curious. Slowly, cautiously, the former guardian walked towards the rock that lay squarely between the two groups and bent down to pick it up. As she straightened she scrutinized the thing, turning it over in her hands with a frown.

"There's something strange that I'm sensing about it though, but I can't place my finger on it…" she said.

"Let me see it," Lena demanded, striding past her brother and captain and holding out her hand in a silent yet somehow urgent order, her eyes glued on the rock. Di Wan blinked and seemed surprised at her interest but nevertheless handed it to the younger seijinn. Lena practically snatched the rock out of her hands. The girl, too, turned it over to examine it but her expression was quite different; she clearly seemed to recognize it and indeed, the erratic glow on her arms stabilized when she moved them apart and used her powers to telekinetically keep the rock afloat before settling it back in her palms. Then she looked up at the convicts. And she was _angry_.

"Where did you get this?" she asked. Her tone was strange; it wasn't one any of the rebels, even Mahad, could remember hearing. It was beyond angry, it was dark and cold.

"Lena, what is it?" her brother asked. She ignored him.

"_Where did you get this?"_ Lena repeated, louder, the bright blue glow snaking up her arms until it was at her elbow

"It's the boss's, not ours—"

"It's a piece of the Origin!" the young seijinn half-yelled, cutting Shanks off in the middle of his sentence and shocking everyone into silence for a moment, though not a long moment.

"What? But—but isn't the Origin that giant throne-thing?" Mahad asked

"Yes! And this is a piece of it!" his sister snapped. The light travelled past her elbows and started inching up her upper arms.

"How do'ye know?" Cortez asked bluntly

"I know! I can sense it. When I used the Origin it became a part of me, just like I'm already a part of it,"

"Look," Dahlia said, pointing at the rock in the girl's hands. It, much like Lena's skin, had started to glow blue along the natural crevices in the rock. Her brother's eyes widened and he started in apparent alarm

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, "The Origin never did that when we in Temuera!"

His sister ignored him and instead looked down at the thing in her hands, her now bright blue fingers clenching around it as her body started to tremble, though she heard the words of the convicts loud and clear as the man formerly known as Julian began to talk again

"Temuera?" he huffed "What? Like that place Marcus's seijinn s—"

"Watch what you say about our mother!" Mahad yelled at him warningly. Whatever he might have said before, the young man's tone seemed to change the ex-rebel's mind

"_Spouse_," he recovered "Went when she decided she was that Light Lady? Thought that was all mumbo jumbo and some of your own propaganda thrown in…anyway, we don't really care how the boss got it, point is he has pieces that he gave to different teams. He already had them,"

"He _already_ _had them_?" Lena exclaimed indignantly "Them? Plural? He's had his hands all over the Origin?!" Her shoulders were glowing underneath her short red sleeves.

"Well, you did just leave it floating around…" Dahlia couldn't stop herself pointing out.

"To be fair, I suppose it wasn't as if they could fit it in the Hyperion," Cortez reluctantly said.

"I thought we wouldn't have to worry about Oslo!" Mahad exclaimed in his own defense, "I mean, without Lena that thing is just a rock with a chair carved into it!"

"Seriously?" Julian exclaimed with a snort "That story is true? But not even Mila could—"

"BECAUSE SHE IS NOT THE LADY OF LIGHT!" Lena yelled, her head snapping up from the rock and the glow spreading up her neck to catch up to her eyes: eyes which had lost their pupils and irises and taken on a bright, seijinn-blue glow to them.

Suddenly there was a blinding flash of blue light that prompted everyone to shield their eyes with a grimace, but it didn't remain painfully bright for long and within a second they were able to open their eyes again and look to where Lena had been standing a moment ago. Except that Lena was no longer standing there. At least, not one that they recognized.

In her place stood (or rather floated several feet into the air) the image of a young woman apparently made out of light. She appeared to be an adult in shape and proportion—though she was about seven or eight feet from head to toe if the rebels were any judge—clad in similar garb to the countess Kondrotti, though her hair was a great deal longer than the ghost's and probably went partway down her back when it wasn't floating around her in the air.

"Lena?" Mahad asked cautiously as he walked in a wide circle around to see the face which had put such looks of terror on Julian and Shanks' faces. Her eyes were like a statue's: sightless, yet staring and apparently solid both in colour and (visual) texture and blazed white amongst the shimmering blue of the rest of her. She turned her head slowly to look down at the two convicts.

"**_I _**_AM," _she told them. Her voice was different; it was similar to Lena's, but ever so slightly deeper, older. Perhaps what Lena would sound like when she was fully grown but it also echoed a little; not with other voices the way that Dianne's had a couple of times, but like she was talking to them through a glass or a tank or something else hollow.

"What…what are you?" Shanks breathed. The large, muscled-man looked and sounded terrified.

"Lena?" Mahad repeated hesitantly. The rock that she had been holding was nowhere to be seen and no one could apparently believe their eyes. Julian's eyes bulged and he turned tail and started to run while still looking over his shoulder so that he ran full-tilt into the bricks that had, in his defense, started to fly from the wall of a damaged building near the basketball court and reassembled themselves in front of the rebels' and convicts' eyes. Shanks experienced the same thing as he fled in the other direction. Both men rammed into the rather solid obstacles in an almost comic manner and dropped to the floor, though Julian was the one who scrambled to his feet and dashed around the quickly forming wall around them. He was permitted to leave. His companion was not quite so lucky. When Shanks tried to dash around the bricks they followed him and barred his way.

_'WHERE ARE YOU GOING?'_ The floating figure enquired with mild curiosity. It was only then that Mahad realized that her lips didn't move when she spoke. None of them were 'hearing' her at all. Everything that she said was conveyed by telepathy, apparently. He doubted that it mattered to Shanks, however, as the large man positively quivered with terror, his eyes looking like they had doubled in size and width in the past minute and a half

'_YOU THREATENED THE FAMILY. MY FAMILY. FARRELL. THE SON OF FARRELL AND MILA, THE BROTHER OF LENA. **MY** BROTHER. YOU WERE GOING TO KILL HIM,'_

"No," Shanks whispered, his head shaking in quick, jerky movements as he backed up against the wall that had been built behind him. "No, no I was bluffing! I swear it! I-I swear! Y-you have my word! I sw—"

'_WORDS ARE NOTHING," _The apparition, the lady, replied calmly, her voice reverberating in their heads '_SHANKS…THIS IS NOT YOUR NAME. WE WOULD KNOW YOUR NAME,'_

The staring white eyes bored into the Convict and the Lady came closer to him, the bricks she had torn from the nearest house right along with the cement holding them together still surrounding them as they closed in their white prison on him.

"Lena, what are you doing?" Dahlia asked as she took a step forward. She ignored him.

'_WHO ARE YOU, SHANKS? WHAT SECRETS DO YOU KNOW?WE WOULD HAVE YOU TELL US, BUT FOR NOW WE ARE FAR MORE INTERESTED IN WHERE YOU AQUIRED THIS,' _ The blue-light woman informed him. The rebels were helpless to do much but watch at this point, and they doubted that they could do anything anyway to stop her from…whatever she was doing. They also doubted that Shanks was about to refuse her anything by the look of him. The rebels and Di Wan suddenly stiffened in surprise as they were suddenly bombarded with a series of images; _Oslo, sitting in a darkened room with a single light shining over him— _he'd obviously not lost that particular proclivity in his defeat_—with four pieces of rock on a surface in front of him. They saw a muscled forearm and hand reach out to take it and hold it in front of them—_him? This seemed to be from Shanks' point of view_—and put it into his large pocket. "Collect a few seijinns for me and observe their reactions to this. Do you understand?" Oslo ordered. The image swiveled as Shanks looked at Julian and a group of others. They nodded collectively_

_ "Good," Oslo replied, "You have each been outfitted with antique, but surprisingly useful technology which will record everything you do, so I will know if you attempt to betray me and whether or not you succeed. You will be rewarded accordingly. Return with both the item and the seijinns, but above all ensure that your item is intact and undamaged. The seijinns I want alive. If anything…unusual happens with the item their survival is imperative. If not, alive is preferable but dead is an option,"_

_"Understood,"_

_"One more thing, the seijinn Girl is to be brought to me alive regardless. That should go without saying,"…_

With that the images stopped. The bricks from the wall of the house clattered to the floor. In another flash the figure of light was gone, leaving just the tween and the rock floating in place for a moment before they both started to fall.

"Lena!" Mahad exclaimed as he rushed forward to catch her, though her fall quickly slowed once it began so that she landed softly and her brother was easily able to catch her. The rock fell to the ground and rolled away from them. Her brother lowered both of them to the concrete carefully so that he was kneeling with her. The young seijinn frowned, her eyes fluttered open and she groaned, one hand coming up to her forehead.

"Ahhhh…what—what happened?" she asked, sitting up on her own.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Cortez said as he came over and knelt down next to them "Are ye alright?"

"I think so," The young girl replied as she looked around at scattered bricks and mortar strewn across the basketball court. Dahlia and Di Wan both walked over cautiously, trying to gauge what was an appropriate distance to keep so as not to crowd the seijinn and her brother. Lena saw the looks on their faces and tried to recall how the mess had been created; she vaguely remembered doing something, but it was rather foggy.

Their heads jerked up at the sound of scuffling to see Shanks, still wide-eyed and ashen faced, grab the rock with a shaking hand and taking off at a run, tripping over a brick and then regaining his equilibrium and increasing his pace.

"Don't let him get away with that!" Lena yelled, the parts of his mind that she had seen rushing back to her in full force as she scrambled to her feet "We have to keep that from Oslo!"

With that they gave chase.

**88899998888**

Up on the cloaked platform hovering above them the time travelers watched the Saint Nazaire's captain swoop in to help his charges. They squinted at the flash that preceded the Lady of Light's first appearance as well and both stared, though it was the teenager who was more transfixed than the Dictator. She stood quietly and watched the blue figure of light swirl into the form of a woman. She looked the legendary figure over: at the calm, smooth glitters of light that made the Lady almost look as though she were some kind of graceful, moving glass with her flowing hair and sleeves and her apparently flawless statuesque features; a figure so different to the fiery rage that erupted from the teenager. Everyone was right; the Lady of Light _was_ hypnotizing.

"She's beautiful," Lena muttered before she could stop herself.

"Yes, she is," Oslo replied before heaving what seemed to be a satisfied, definitive breath. "And now that the timeline is secure, I believe it is time for us to go. Come along, Lena,"

Lena jumped slightly and started whipping her head around, stiffening when the platform started to move again. Her breath started to hitch as she was again reminded of her situation.

"NononoNO! Dammit!" she swore as she started to strain and jerk against Kale's hold again, desperate to escape.

"Oh are we starting with this again are we? You're a smart girl, I'd expected you to have learned better by now," Oslo asked in a sickeningly sweet patronizing tone. Lena glared at him through the long strands of dark hair hanging over her face even as she started to shake at the idea of being thrown into a cage with him as her jailor. He gave another of his skin-crawling smirks and returned his attention to the air battle with mild amusement. The teenager took advantage of his shift in focus to strain her neck to look behind her, masking the motion as a flip of her ever un-cooperative mane.

"Kale," she hissed imploringly, "Kale, listen to me—I know you're in there somewhere! I know it! Please, Kale. I know you're fighting it…just like when you didn't let on in the alley. Remember? You recognized me, didn't you? It's _me_, Lena! Lenny? Come on, they can't have destroyed what's _you_ in there, they _can't_. You're a fighter! Come on, _keep fighting it_!"

Lena stiffened when she felt the previously unyielding hold on her arms start to pulse as the ex-gladiator's hands loosened their grip and then tightened it again just before she could break free. Oslo apparently heard this and casually ordered the ex-gladiator to restrain her. In one swift, robotic move Kale released one of her biceps and threw his arm across her neck, pulling her back so that her back was flush against his chest, pushing a small amount of air from her lungs in a grunt. The hold itself wasn't that painful, however; unyielding, but not enough to restrict her air supply—and was a move she had neither expected nor seen before in a Drone. They rarely deviated from their orders to show any initiative. She frowned and brought her bound hands up to the thickly muscled forearm across her shoulders before her gaze cautiously flicked to her true captor; Oslo still didn't look their way, chalking up the scuffling to her relentless resistance. Slowly she turned her head ever so slightly to look at the masked face right next to hers.

"Help me." She said softly in a strangely calm voice as she searched the thinly veiled eye-holes in the mask, her voice filled with sincerity and a small touch of fear. This was not something she was accustomed to asking. She swallowed and glanced briefly at Oslo again before returning her gaze to her old friend and adding in an almost defeated, strained voice "Please."

For a moment nothing happened and the teenager felt her heart sink. She sagged slightly in defeat against her old friend when there was a slight movement near her cheek and a smooth, cold, metallic substance brushed her ear as Kale slowly, jerkingly, moved his head down ever so slightly.

"Ch…choke…hold…" he rasped in her ear. Lena's eyes widened in shock and her fingers contracted on Kale's arm as an old memory struck her forcefully of a lesson with the ex-gladiator so very long ago…

_"Alright, choke holds again. We're going with a scenario. It's the middle of the night. Your powers aren't working. You're alone on a block," _

_"**Why** would I be alone on a block in the middle of the night?" She countered. The tall blonde man crossed his arms over chest and gave her a 'look'. _

_"Do I need to bring up the time that you—"_

_"Never mind," she cut him off, realizing that the argument she'd been using wouldn't exactly stand in her favour._

_"Or the time that you and —"_

_"Yeah, no, no, I got it," she said again, knowing full well that the number of times she had run off and/or gotten herself into trouble stood against her._

_"Look, even if you're not alone, what if you are with someone and they get knocked out? This is why your mom wants me to teach you this. Besides, you're usually a good student,'_

_"Yeah, yeah, I know," _

_"Right," Kale said as he came up behind her and almost had to reach down to put her in a gentle choke hold. "Now, an agent or a bounty hunter or whoever grabs you. We learned this last week, remember?" _

_'I remember," She replied. With that she grabbed a hold of his forearm firmly…_

_…_with her bound hands, widened her stance slightly with her feet between his and hauled forward; in one fluid motion had him over her head and on the floor. She jumped over him and narrowly avoided his hand when it robotically made a grab for her ankle and landed in a whirl, snatching the remote off Oslo's belt before the dictator had fully turned around. She then backed up, holding the rectangular device between them like a blaster. She opened her mouth to make a smart-alec comment when a flash of movement caught her eye and she stumbled backwards to try and avoid Kale as the masked man rushed forward to seize her. She grunted slightly as his weight sent them both toppling over the edge of the platform

"_Nooo_!" Oslo half-cried-half-snarled as he lunged forward, reaching out with his powers to pull her back only to have them flare up and dissipate like a scattering swarm of fireflies; The exelerium surrounding her cancelled out his powers just as efficiently as they cancelled out hers. He could do little but watch as the teenager fell through the sky, unable to slow herself down either.

The teenager and the former gladiator rolled through the air for a brief moment before they both came crashing down onto a roof with Kale beneath Lena. The seijinn flinched at the sickening crunch she heard when they hit the roof before the force of the impact practically bounced her off him and sent her down the side of the roof, the controller flying out of her hands and the rough tiles burning across her skin as she half-rolled-half-slid down the incline before crashing on top of the fleeing Shanks. The outlaw shouted out some indeterminate obscenity as the sudden, forceful impact sent him toppling to the ground and sent the rock flying out of his hands. The teenager grunted again when she finally hit the cobblestones hard, her head spinning and her ears ringing; she wasn't sure how many times or how hard she'd banged her head on her little tumble but it had been enough to stun her slightly and giver her double vision as she opened and then closed her eyes several times.

The young woman was barely aware of the sounds of the Rebels running towards her, two of them setting themselves upon Shanks and hauling him up, pinning him against the wall. Dimly she heard the voices and scuffling and felt oddly focused on the warm trickle down her temple as a drop of blood trickled down from her scalp that she barely registered the muffled voice talking to her as though speaking through some kind of glass that distorted their voice as it gradually became more clear.

_"Great Skyland! What's happened to her?"_

_"I think that's Dianne! Dianne, can you hear me? What the hell is on her neck and—Cortez, someone's tied her up!"_

_"She's hurt, look. What happened? Dianne, what happened? Dianne? _Dianne? Dianne, what happened? Can you hear me?"

The ringing receded enough for her to fully make out what they were saying. They kept calling her Dianne…Oh. Right. _Dianne_. That's who she was here. It was good thing her mouth seemed disconnected from her brain or she might have given herself away in that muddled moment and revealed to much about the—

She cut off her own train of thought and blinked, the blood draining from her face as she twisted away from Dahlia and Mahad just when they were about to free her hands. She fumbled and felt around madly for the controller that she had stolen before she saw it three feet away and froze.

"_Shit_," she squeaked, diving for it and picking it up the sparking, shattered pieces awkwardly with shaking, bound hands. "Ohshitohshitoh_shit_!"

The young woman looked around wildly, her long hair whipping through the air as she did so, not appearing to notice the blonde trying to untie her hands even as she fumbled around for the pieces. Her hands shook from a combination of the excelerium and the full impact of what she had just done came crashing down to her and she allowed the pieces to fall through her fingers to the floor. The rebels only slightly misread her expression as one of some kind of trauma

"Hey, hey," Dahlia said in a comforting way as she managed to get a hold of the other girl's hand's hands, holding them in a firm and reassuring manner, trying to make the girl she knew as Dianne look at her "It's okay. You're going to be okay,"

Dianne stopped moving for a moment and stared at Dahlia and Mahad with a pained expression, briefly speechless as the blonde rebel managed to untangle the black ropes. The rebels winced slightly as the smoke spewed one last pathetic cloud when Dahlia got them loose and held the length of cord between her thumb and forefinger at arm's length, exchanging a glance with Cortez and passing it to him.

"What is that?" Mahad asked.

"It's excelerium!" his sister exclaimed as she and Di Wan/Wanda instinctively moved back a step from it. Mahad grimaced slightly and returned his attention to the teenager, wincing slightly at the scrapes and blood that practically covered her. He opened his mouth to blurt out that she looked terrible when she suddenly lunged forward and grabbed his shoulders imploringly.

"I'm sorry!" She exclaimed, obviously distressed "I'm sorry for everything I didn't mean it! I was trying to fix everything! I didn't—it was an accident! I was trying get them to turn on Oslo, I didn't mean for the thing to break!"

"What are you talking about?" the pilot asked, a little alarmed at the sudden movement but nevertheless gentle as he tried to calm her down. Before she could answer, however, there was a series of loud thuds and a man literally fell from the sky, followed quickly by another two men and a woman; all of them wore masks and three of them were in identical uniforms though the woman's differed in colour. The first three hit the ground with sickening crunches, one of them clearly breaking his arm, but the woman slowed in mid-air and landed lightly on both feet. To the rebels' horror the others, including the one with the broken arm, got to their feet and began to advance on them.

Dianne released Mahad and scuttled back from him to get enough space to haul herself up to her feet.

"Run," she told the rebels as two of the masked men raised their arms stiffly with some sort of weapon attached to their wrists.

"Wait a minute, who are you? What are you doing here?" Mahad demanded

"They can't answer you and they don't care, RUN!"

When the two soldiers clenched their fists and each fired a round of some kind of projectile at them, the rebels didn't hesitate to do exactly what she said.

"Who are they?" Mahad asked again

"No time to explain!" Dianne snapped, stumbling slightly and running with a marked limp "All you have to know is that they will kill or cripple you if they get their hands on you and nothing short of killing or crippling _them_ will stop them, so aim for the kneecaps and spine. If you kill them they might even thank you,"

"We seem to be doing an awful lot of running around through blocks these days," Lena grumbled

"Ha! Welcome to my world, Milady!" Dianne scoffed

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To say that Oslo was angry was an understatement. A big one. His prize had plummeted off the platform with both the soldier and the controller, and it was readily apparent what had happened to the latter when the Drones jerked and their masks sparked briefly before they moved forward as though to attack his platform when it re-attached itself onto the ship. It was really not a threat to him, however, merely an annoyance. He raised his hand and used his powers to press the lot of them against the walls of the ship, even forcing a few drones down to the floor as he walked through the halls of his ship towards the engine room. The drones were no threat to him, but they might be to his engineer and annoying and occasionally impetuous that the little man was, he was unparalleled even by his own grandfather and was incredibly useful.

Sure enough, he opened the doors with his powers to find that the slight, lean Asian man had, intelligently, shut himself in the glass prisoner's light chamber; a device which would have absolutely no effect on him as he wasn't a seijinn and which was extremely secure and could only be released by a code that none of the drones would know or be capable of figuring out. The dictator walked in and wordlessly hauled the attacking drones away from the rather valuable tools that they were threatening and froze them in place as he moved to the large circular computer console and typed in the code that released the door to the light chamber. It was almost amusing to watch someone walk out of there instead of falling out of it or having to be dragged or carried out.

"Fix this," Oslo ordered the man, pointing at the struggling drones. "Now!"

The slightly taller man hurried to do as he was bid and his fingers flew over the several different keyboards as he muttered under his breath about 'signals' and 'calibrations' and some other technical terms that Oslo didn't care about. It took a surprisingly short amount of time for the Drones to cease trying to attack and come to a halt. The ones who were able to stood at attention. No doubt they did the same on the block.

"It will take a few more minutes to re-boost the signal from another controller," Cheng said, his adult voice surprisingly deep.

"You have _one_," Oslo informed him with a scowl. His narrowed eyes scanned over the array of computer keyboards and control slabs.

"Which of these will access the collar?"

"The one in use, sir?" Cheng asked even as he continued to type.

"_Yes the one in use_!" Oslo yelled in his ear, making him flinch. The head of Sphere Technology pointed at a console with a dial on it and typed in a few keys, bringing up a bar graph on one of the displays along with the simple outline of a human woman that one might see in a medical textbook.

"What is all this?" He demanded.

"Vital signs of the seijinn in question and the rate of excelerium being administered. The vial controls the amount of excelerium administered," he replied.

"Very well," Oslo growled more to himself than Cheng as he shoved the man aside, grabbed the dial and turned it "If she won't come willingly and won't save her own life then we shall simply have to be harsh for her own good,"

"But sir," The Asian man exclaimed, pausing in his work "That much excelerium at once administered directly into her system…it could put her in a coma!"

"That is the idea, you fool! If she's unconscious we can simply extract her and return and send her to the infirmary. Now shut up and get that system fixed!"

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Suddenly and without apparent warning the collar around Dianne's neck started to whirr and she screamed, her hands flying up to clutch at it as she fell to her knees and pulled at it futilely. The rebels stopped short and had to jog back a pace as she writhed on the ground, flashes of blue flitting over her skin alternating with surges of a purpley black.

"Get it off," She wheezed, her panic rising as Dahlia and Cortez both shoved her hair out of the way to look at the thing on her neck as she screamed "_Get it off_!"

"How?" Cortez asked bluntly, signaling for Mahad and Lena to keep the masked people away from them if possible. Di Wan threw her powers into the mix too, helping the young seijinn create a barrier of seijinn energy around them.

"I don't _care_!" Dianne exclaimed, indignation and panic battling for dominance in her tone before she jerked in a large spasm and cried out before shouting "CUT IT OFF! SHOOT IT OFF! I DON'T CARE! I DON'T CARE IF YOU CUT MY HEAD OFF, JUST GET THIS THING OFF ME!"

Cortez grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her twice.

"Calm down first! We can't do anything with you thrashing around like that. You're going to be alright!" He told her firmly, but not harshly for a change. "Dahlia, would you give us a hand here!"

She was clearly terrified and panicky, something he hadn't expected to see from someone who could take an army almost single-handedly without batting an eyelid. Yet she was apparently losing strength, shaking and her silver-blue eyes were wide with sheer terror. Then again, she was also pale and sweaty so the shaking could be a physical symptom. Dahlia took one look at the thick black thing around the other girl's neck and then at the way her powers appeared to be reacting made her realize what the flashes of black were. She looked up at Cortez

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked him grimly while she took out a thin piece of metal to carefully try and pick the release catch to remove the collar. Cortez released Dianne's shoulders and nodded

"Aye." He replied "But I didn't think exelerium gave this kind of reactions. It just knocked out the one we tried it on and blocked her powers for a while."

"Cortez…they're stopping," Mahad called over his shoulder. The masked soldiers had apparently stopped their advance and simply stood there at attention. Dianne suddenly fell backwards like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Cortez started forward and managed to catch her before she hit the ground. Her eyes were starting to roll into the back of her head.

"Leech has…regained control of them…upped the release rate…" She gasped almost incoherently, twitching and struggling to focus her eyes with increasing difficulty. None of them understood what she was saying. She looked up at Cortez and apparently decided to answer his previous question "Everyone…reacts differently…but we all eventually pass out, yes…I've only…only got a minute or two before…he's trying to…too much excelerium puts seijinns in comas…"

The word 'coma' was enough to increase the urgency. They gently eased her forward so that Dahlia and Cortez could see the back of the collar and Dahlia could keep picking it.

"You can pick locks?" Mahad asked.

"Not now, Mahad," She half-growled as she felt the lock start to give. Suddenly there was an audible click. "Got it!"

Quickly she worked the now-open lock off and started to pull the collar off its wearer. It was more difficult than they'd thought ; it literally had to be peeled; Dahlia and the other younger rebels made faces and Cortez grimaced when the rebel archer slowly pried the device outwards and in the process pulled the small black spikes lining the inside of the collar out of her neck with a sickening sound. Dahlia tossed the thing away from their new friend who managed to haul herself forwards onto her hands where she started coughing, her long hair falling over one shoulder and leaving the other side of her neck bare for the others to see the small, evenly spaced, circular wounds which were weeping a black liquid. One drop seemed particularly viscous as it gathered and slowly slid down her neck as the teenager started to wretch.

"What _is_ that?" Di Wan asked with distaste. Mahad extended his arm to protectively push his sister behind him and away from the open collar, in particular the spikes which were only just finishing pumping out the thin black liquid. They looked back over to where Dianne was retching and pulled faces again at the tar-like stuff that seemed to be coming out of her mouth as Cortez awkwardly patted her back in an attempt at comfort, though finding a spot to safely do so was difficult with scrapes, cuts (which themselves seemed to now be expelling the excelerium) and bruises in the area from her fall. The blue glow was also erratically flashing along her skin. As the teen gasped between heaves she seemed to be trying to say something.

"What's she saying?" Lena asked.

"I don't know…I think, something about 'move'?" the Captain said, inching back on his knees to avoid the rather revolting black puddle. Dianne seemed to have finished vomiting and was now wheezing and gasping for breath,

"Ge..get…away," she gasped loudly, her hands coming up to her throat as though she were choking though that didn't stop her from feeling It rushing out from the shelter it had ensconced Itself in and pushed out as much of the stuff from her body as It could. Her body wouldn't be able to sustain it long like this but she wasn't in much of a state to deny her inner demon its rage, either. She finally managed to get enough air into her lungs to put into words the message that was imperative for them.

"Get out of here! Get away!"

"Yes, we will, with you," Dahlia said as she moved to help the other girl up. Dianne shook her off with surprising vigor and shoved her away as her eyes started to literally flash.

"No! You have to get away from me! I can't…I can't stop it!" she exclaimed, "Go! Run!"

The rebels could see that something was up and Cortez and Dahlia stood and started to hesitantly back up a pace and the Farrell siblings moved several paces back. It wasn't enough.

"RUN!" She shrieked at them, prompting them to move a little faster with alarm if nothing else as her back arched "RUU_*UUU—" _Her scream morphed into loud, echoing, avian shriek as her back arched and her neck craned upward towards the sky, a bright blue blast of light erupting out from her mouth and arms in torrents of blue flames. The rebels did not need any further instruction to flee from her as the flames spread like wildfire and formed into the mighty bird that they had seen mere days ago, though not quite at the same size even though it was still massive.

The bird of blue fire was undeniably angry. It rolled its head around on its shoulders and puffed out its chest as its shrieked and spread its wings, its blazing white eyes alive with fury and destruction. It again craned its head back to the sky and shrieked its rage as it briefly vaulted itself into the air but failed to gain much altitude or even remain airborne and angled back to the ground in a terrifying display as it continued to shriek its indignation. On its way back down it seized a small ship in its clutches; the pilot barely made it out in time as the contraption disintegrated. The same thing happened to anything or—they discovered thanks to the nearest line of soldiers who didn't move, any**_one_**—that touched the flames. It was like when Lena had used the Origin and completely destroyed the patrollers that approached.

It was over as quickly as it had begun. The Bird swooped down on a building to land and seemed to almost take pleasure in wreaking the destruction on it and turning the place to dust. It settled down in the ruins and turned its head up to the sky one more time with final, deafening trumpet which eventually died down and morphed into a more human sound as the bird's wings rose to form a V as it retreated back into its…for lack of a better word or understanding…_host_, leaving the bloodied and battered teenager half-kneeling-half-sitting in the midst of the sand that was left of the buildings she had so thoroughly destroyed.

That appeared to be it, Dianne mused. In the dim fog of her exhaustion she could feel the sudden absence of her powers. They wouldn't be back for days; the last time she'd come into direct contact with that much excelerium the Phoenix had thrown a tantrum, just as it had this time, and then vanished along with the rest of her powers for a very uncomfortable yet simultaneously peaceful week. Sure enough when she looked down at her arms the glow on her skin and the raised veins had once again disappeared, leaving her looking even more pale than usual. She swayed in place and put her hands down on the ground to steady herself, though her arms trembled with even the slightest of effort required of them as she looked around listlessly at the destruction.

One sight caught her eye, however, a flash of colour. She wasn't the only one who had seen it either.

"Hey, look!" Mahad's voice sounded through the fog as she started to get up and then fell down, prompting her to crawl towards the prone body of a masked soldier who had avoided the fate of his fellows (only the closest few had been completely de-atomized, the others had just been thrown around rather violently) by the fact that he had already been lying down on the cobbles, though he was clearly injured. It looked like something was wrong with his back…

"Wait…" Dianne croaked, her voice suddenly hoarse and rasping as she crawled forward. Cortez was coming over to look at him.

"He looks like he's hurt kind of badly," Mahad said

"Aye," Cortez agreed.

"The mask…don't touch it…" Dianne rasped.

"Mahad," Dahlia's voice suddenly rang from another spot on the block several meters away. "can you come here a minute?"

"Just a sec," The pilot called over his shoulder before turning back to Cortez and reaching his fingers under the soldier's greying blonde hair. "What d'you think? Should we see who's behind the masks?"

"Mahad, did you lose your coat?" Dahlia called, though the pilot wasn't paying attention to her just at that moment as he fiddled with what seemed to be a catch at the base of the man's skull

"Aye, carefully," the Captain agreed. Dianne's eyes widened and she crawled a little faster as she swallowed to try and get some moisture to her throat to form words again.

"I can't believe he's still alive, his back looks broken,"

"Aye. I'll have Wayan bring a stretcher. Try not to move his head,"

"Yeah, I know. Man, the thing's stuck…wait, I think I got it! Let's get this off,"

"NO!" Dianne yelled as she managed to get her feet under her and throw herself forward at them too late. The pilot had grabbed hold of the edges and already started pulling at them when she grabbed him, the force of her body weight prompting him to practically yank the mask off with more force than necessary. The moment that happened the man on the floor let out a blood-curdling scream of agony and flailed his arms until Cortez managed to grab them. Dianne looked on in horror, her eyes wide and almost tearful and her lower jaw trembling as her hand came up to her mouth.

Mahad looked down at the contraption in his hand to see that in the center of the part that would cover the forehead and on the sides and various other places were needle-like spikes. They were longer and thinner than the ones that had lined her collar and didn't drip anything but looked no less menacing or painful.

The man only screamed for about 30 seconds before going limp. He was still breathing, which was evident by the movement of his large, barrel-like chest but his eyes were open and staring and his jaw slack. His scream had brought Dahlia running over with Di Wan and Lena, a long, tan, trench coat gripped in one of her hands. She blinked in momentary confusion to see that Mahad was still wearing his garment before glancing down at the masked soldier where her jaw dropped.

The face of this man looked worn and weathered and wrinkled in places before its time but the shape and features, from the (admittedly greying) blonde hair to the eyes looked just like a close acquaintance. Someone who was the same impressive height that this man probably was when he stood and also very strongly built.

"Could it be his fath—"

"Kale," Dianne whispered as her shaking hands went to hover slightly over him before they clenched into fists that she brought to her chest to stop them shaking and doubled over, her next words coming out in the thin, shaking whine that often accompanied tears "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…"

With that her trembling frame gave out and she collapsed, out cold on the cracked pavement. The rebels blinked, a little taken aback by this statement. It was Cortez who came up with an answer as he shrugged

"Maybe it's a family name," He remarked even as he looked the unconscious youth over gingerly. She was still breathing and seemed a little battered, but otherwise not in immediate danger, though he'd have her checked over by the medically trained members of his crew after they had stabilized their new…prisoner? Dahlia in the meantime frowned and looked down at the coat in her hands, holding it up in front of her and pulling the collar back.

"Mahad, take off your coat," She said.

"What?"

"Take it off," she repeated.

"Why?"

"Just do it," Lena snapped. The pilot rolled his eyes but did as they bid him, handing the coat to his sister.

"There, happy?" He asked. Neither of them answered him. Instead his sister spread it out and then looked back to compare the two as Dahlia did the same. Both coats were the exact same length, size, style and make. On the inside of both colours were the same initials: _M.F_ Both sets of initials were done in the same place on the coat and were embroidered in the same elaborate font. Dahlia moved her arms to flip her coat around and look at the front. The one she held which the girl calling herself 'Dianne' had been wearing had been darkened in colour slightly with age and had two patches on it but otherwise…

"It's the same coat," Dahlia stated disbelievingly.

"Aye, there's probably a few hanging around. They were popular at one time when Skyland was still earth," Cortez said without looking up.

"No, Cortez, it's the same coat. There's even…great Skyland! There's even an old blood stain on this one in the same place where Mahad's just stained his," Dahlia told them. Mahad unconsciously touched his fingers to the jagged cut along his jaw which was still bleeding and then looked at the coats again. Sure enough, down at the base of the inside of the collar that was not always visible, there was the same stain.

"That's…how's that…? But…?" The pilot stammered, not quite managing to finish a question or statement as he pointed at his coat and then "Dianne's". Slowly as one, the rebels (and Di Wan) turned their gaze on the unconscious teenager passed out on the ground, strands of her long straight hair falling over her scraped and bleeding face, her features stalled in a frown of distress.

She would have a lot of explaining to do when she woke up.


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: Funnily enough, still not mine. **

**A/N: Funny how any chapter I anticipate being short never stays that way…Shorter, maybe. But not short.  
>Housekeeping again: When the time-travelling Lena is alone she is Lena, but to avoid confusion (for the reader anyway; you bet the Rebels are confused as anything) she will remain Dianne when with people from 2252. <strong>

**Chapter 16**

Dianne's head was pounding.

When she opened her eyes slowly to see something white with a glistening point descending down towards her and feeling the prick of a needle. A flash of memory and a jolt of panic slammed her back to full consciousness and she bolted up and over the edge of the couch she'd been laid out on with a yell

_"Get the hell away from me_!" she half-yelled, her entire body tensed for a fight and her heart racing. In her mind she was back in a darkened room three years ago with the 'other' face from her nightmares standing over her with a mask and a syringe. It took a moment for her to register the identity of the boy in the room with her, but even his youth and vulnerability didn't initially help. He might not be one of the faces hounding her nightmares, but he wasn't welcome either.

"Whoa, whoa!" Cheng exclaimed from the floor as he put his hand out Ina motion that was half defensive, half placating. "It's okay, it's okay!"

Her gaze flicked to the syringe on the floor. The young boy followed her gaze.

"It's okay," he repeated in a flash of realization. "It's just antibiotics. You've been running a fever, we wanted to make sure you were okay,"

Dianne took a deep breath of relief. Her panic was seceding. The ebbing of her adrenaline rush, however, came the avenged return of her pounding headache. She shut her eyes and brought her hands up above her ears as her face twisted with pain. She let out a low whine and bent over the couch. Everything hurt. Again. It was the second time in a week that she had woken to discomfort everywhere. She tried to look up only to whimper at a jolt of a particularly strong throbbing around her neck. Her hand then flew to where the deep ache stabbed down through the muscle. Her fingers brushed over the raised, puckered, scabbing points of flesh at the root of her discomfort.

There was a series of scuffling sounds as the rest of the rebels rushed back to the room, summoned by the sounds of a struggle undoubtedly. It was a full compliment: Cortez, Wayan, Dahlia, Mila, the Vector, Mahad, Lena and even Kale. The Gladiator's face brought the events prior rushing back to her.

"Kale," She breathed

"Yes, we have a few questions about him," Cortez said gruffly. His adoptive son got to his feet and after receiving a muttered request from the Vector, left the room quietly.

Dianne continued to rub her neck and then rolled her shoulders, feeling the muscles protest and catching the sickly, oddly sweet whiff of fresh flesh wounds. The sensation was alien to her; superficial wounds always healed instantaneously with her powers. She shrugged her arm up slightly to look up her forearm, elbow and bicep to see bandages that covered the limb from hand to shoulder. Upon that realization came another that there was something on her head and the teenager gingerly touched the square piece of gauze held to her temple with surgical tape.

"You were hurt," the Vector explained as he crossed his arms over his chest. He was followed by Mila and Cortez, then Wayan, Dahlia, Mahad and Lena. Dianne avoided eye contact quite genuinely when the pains in her neck brought both hands up to it; there was a deep muscle ache which seemed to seep through, concentrated at the small puncture wounds. She leaned her head forward onto the back of the couch, trying to take some of the weight of her head off the muscles there for a moment when she suddenly registered the faintly sticky substance that she was smearing across her skin. She brought her fingers away from her neck and to her nose, sniffing twice at the translucent goo.

"It's an antiseptic," Mila told her, handing the girl a bottle of water. Dianne rolled her eyes and sat back slightly, but accepted the water.

"Waste of supplies," the teenager grumbled, taking a long, gulping drink from the water bottle. When she was finished she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and refilled her lungs with a satisfied gasp before adding, "I don't need them,"

"You've had those scrapes longer than your broken arm," Cortez pointed out.

"Have I?" Dianne asked in disbelief as she rubbed her neck absent-mindedly, "Geez…how long was I out?"

"A day and a half," Mila said. Just then Cheng walked back in, the open laptop tucked into the crook of on arm while he finished up typing something with the other hand. He looked up at the gathering and then clicked a few keys, closing the computer.

"Here you go, Vector. Scan's all finished. The systems are all great and secure," He said, sliding out a rectangular device and pocketing it before passing the computer over to the old man.

"Cheng," Cortez barked, his expression clearly indicating that now was not the time. The child shrugged sheepishly.

"Could have been worse, I guess," Dianne muttered in response to Mila's statement. Looking as though she had suddenly remembered something she reached into her pocket and fished out a small, rectangular packet. She tore it open to reveal some kind lump that was apparently edible for she began to devour the lumpy thing. The rebels frowned slightly, a little taken aback but she offered no explanation. Instead she swallowed and then returned to their initial observation, shrugging her shoulder forward to indicate the bandaged arm

"It's the excelerium. My powers are gonna be shot for a few days while my body detoxes. That'll be _fun_…I don't suppose that's everything, is it?"

Cortez shook his head once and the others mirrored his action. Dianne deflated slightly at seeing this and then straightened again stiffly when a younger-looking Kale than she was used to approached her. His face was set into a stern, determined mask but his face was ashen as he held out the mask to her. Her hand shook as she reached out to take it from him before pulling back as though fearing to touch it before visibly steeling herself and taking the device from the captain. She held it gingerly on her fingertips and stared at it, able to see the dried blood crusted even on the inner corner of the eye hole. Slowly the teenager turned it over, her face grim and her jaw visibly clenched when she saw the crusted over spikes, one hand going to the wounds on her neck subconsciously. She looked up at the Captain.

"Who were those soldiers?" Cortez inquired.

"Drones," Dianne corrected quietly.

"Pardon?"

"They're called drones," she said louder, her words overly articulated and deliberately placed to convey her reluctance to pass on the information. She looked at each of the rebels in turn, though avoided looking at Kale.

"They're…an experiment. I'm on the run from a fringe group that was formed a long time ago by people who think like Shinsiki but who know how to play politics a little better. They get funding from the Sphere. I was a promising young seijinn pupil who had just been taken from my family and was on my way to the academy when they picked me for experiments too. I don't know how the science behind the masks works but they somehow override the victim's free will. It tells them who their commander is and keeps them from making their own decisions," she said.

It wasn't entirely a lie, she supposed. That was how the masks worked, after all and besides, she prided herself on her ability to think on her feet; it was what had kept her alive all her life. The rebels each had a poker face on, though some were better at it than others and she knew all of their 'tells'. This news unnerved them but they still weren't quite buying it.

"And why haven't we heard about this before?" Wayan asked her.

"Forgive me for seeming rude," Dianne started with a slight scoff "But up until recently you haven't exactly been a big-time operation,"

"But _I_ haven't seen anything in any scientific articles or journals that would even provide a basis for this kind of technology," The Vector interjected "And I _am_ big time news in the scientific community,"

"They _wouldn't_ publish it, would they? They don't technically exist," This was very true. They didn't technically exist. Nor did they literally exist but the rebels didn't know that. They still weren't buying it, though, why weren't they buying it? What else had happened when she was out?

"And why haven't people been noticed when they go missing?" Mila asked her. Dianne gave her a 'look'

"Seriously? It's not like they'd pick important people! How many people do the Sphere return when they take them? Once you go into a patroller no one looks for you to come out of it," she pointed out, sticking her thumb over her shoulder to emphasize her point. Suddenly she remembered something that might be putting their guards up. Perhaps this time breaking the cardinal rule of falsehood would be in order and she should add some more details…

"I should know," she told them "I'm an experiment too. Guessing you saw the results?"

"Yeah, I want to know about that," Lena piped in, her tone just slightly aggressive. "That was powerful seijinn work. Where did that come from?"

Dianne gave her a withering look.

"Calm down Milady," she drawled "There's only one Lady of Light,"

"Then what was the bird? I've never felt anything like that," the younger girl countered. Dianne sighed and ran her fingers through her hair wearily.

"They fiddled with me for years. Light chambers, excelerium, that sort of thing. They were doing the same kind of thing as that—what was the loopy woman's name who attacked me? Shiski? Well, it…wasn't pleasant." She told them "And it had an unexpected consequence,"

"What would that be?" Cortez asked. She whipped her head around to look him in the eye

"It split my psyche. You're looking at the Hulk in bird form," she said. The rebels stared at her blankly with only Cheng showing any signs of recognition. Typical that he'd be the one to read old earth comics.

"Never mind, bad reference," she muttered.

"And what about the guy in the mask?" Kale said sharply, unable to keep his silence any further "You called him my name. He looks just like my dad!"

"Well, he's your clone, what do you expect?" she asked him bluntly, mentally congratulating herself on that stroke of ingenuity. "You're massive and physically powerful and have the constitution of an Ox. When you won your first fight they took your DNA and decided to speed-grow another you,"

"Then why does he look older than me?" Kale demanded. Without looking at him Dianne held up the mask.

"This thing. As it turns out, ignoring your body's messages of 'stop that _now'_ on a regular basis burns you out quickly. They don't last long once you put the mask on. It's also why you have to make it physically impossible for them to keep moving if you want to get away. Any other questions?" she finished, her eyebrows raised in challenge at them.

Cortez looked over at Mahad and Dahlia and the pilot nodded at him in recognition of the silent order and took his hands out of his coat pockets, walking into the other room and returning with a long, dusty trench coat in his hand that was, barring the coat of dust and a patch, identical to the one that he was wearing. She stiffened ever so slightly but neither flinched nor looked away from them. She shrugged.

"What's wrong with my coat?"

"You mean _my_ coat?" Mahad retorted as he approached her with it. Dianne's face was difficult to read and she made no motion to take it from him right away; he'd expected her to snatch it from him, but instead she just looked at him in silence for a moment before she finally shrugged again, nonchalantly.

"It's not as though you have the only trench coat ever made," she pointed out calmly, reaching to take the garment when Mahad pulled it back, prompting her to still partway through the motion with her arm up and hand outstretched, her fingers just barely touching the fabric. Slowly she retracted her hand and straightened in her seat. The pilot turned the coat around and held it out so that the collar was pulled back to show the initials M.F embroidered on the inside.

"M.F.," Lena said, crossing her arms over her chest, "Marcus Farrell,"

"Or Mahad Farrell," Cheng piped up from his computer. The others ignored him and Dianne cocked her head to the side slightly

"Or Marty Freeman," She said "That's the name of the guy I got it from. Same initials. I guess he liked red too. I never asked,"

Mahad, for once, said nothing. He merely frowned and his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. The other rebels had similar expressions on their faces. Dianne felt a small knot of dread form in her stomach. What had she missed?

"What?" she asked. Her question was met with silence. "What? What else do you want to know? You think I could make this stuff up?"

"Actually…" Wayan remarked from his casual position leaning against the wall.

"You're good," Mila stated. She herself was rather accomplished at deception; she'd had to be in order to remain undetected for so many years and convince everyone on the block she'd raised them on that she was someone with an entirely different life, history and mindset to the fiery rebel that she had been before Marcus's disappearance. "You're very good,"

"We know that you're not telling us the truth," Cortez told her as Mahad handed Dianne's coat to Dahlia and shrugged his own off his own coat. Almost as one the two of them turned up the collars to reveal the identical bloodstains; the exact same location, size and shape on both garments. The dark haired teen's mouth opened and then closed as her mind raced to come up with an explanation. The only thing that she could think of was to rely on the sheer impossibility of her situation.

"So the stains are similar…I don't think that's even blood on mine…" she trailed off.

"We tested both stains and used the Vector's equipment to test the DNA from the stains," Wayan said as he took a step forward "They're both Mahad's blood,"

"There must have been some kind of mistake then," Dianne half-snapped.

"We were very careful," The Vector informed her "My equipment may be a little slower than the equipment they have at Oxford but it is no less thorough. I also ran another test on both our masked patient and your garments and both of them are exhibiting the kind of radiation that, theoretically, would be present in the event of a temporal event,"

Dianne just stared at him with disbelief.

"Time travel," Cheng supplied, misunderstanding her expression. He was likely the only one to misinterpret it, however. He might have been distracted by the quick adjustments he was making to the computer through one of his hand-held devices. After Cortez gave him a look he pressed a key and reached behind his back to tuck the gadget just behind is belt. For several tense moments there was a heavy silence in the room punctuated only by the slight sounds of Dianne shifting in her seat.

"So. Is there anything you'd like to tell us?" Cortez asked her gently.

"Who did you test?"

"We've already gotten the results back from Kale's counterpart in the other room. You were clever to add that aspect to your story to explain the DNA match. We started one on yourself, but it hasn't finished yet,"

"Cancel it," Dianne told them, "Don't waste the power,"

When no one said anything the teenager sighed and brought her hands up in a somewhat exasperated of supplication

"I lied?" she offered almost questioningly.

8888

Oslo sat in the middle of a darkened room, brooding. In one hand he twirled a small piece of rock, one of only two to return to his possession. He scowled at it a moment before opening his palm and levitating it into the air, swiveling around in his chair to survey the semi-circular desk he was sitting at. One day he would have one like he had enjoyed aboard the monolith redone but for now he would have to make do with the stationary, clunky, iron-colored metal. He had managed to get a few monitors set up, at least, old though they may be. The seijinn scowled at the two modestly sized screens set in their boxy processors. In apparent irritation he jabbed a key on the one on his left with his ring finger, bringing up the recording from the camera-scanner he had had attached to his mercenaries' clothes in various places, some to their knowledge, some not.

The result of this move was several hours' worth of compiled footage of the outlaws' fight with the rebels. When he had initially made this plan several weeks ago his focus had been on the rebels he was accustomed to fighting, in particular in how Lena had been progressing of course. His experiences at Oxford had prompted him to widen his prospects. He was one of the most powerful seijinns in skyland, certainly the most experienced and it was not often that he was defeated in battle; every bruise he had received at Oxford stood out in his memory as another reason to add this teenager to his list. Oslo had never thought it possible to find someone more powerful than himself or Mila until Lena came to his attention, and then had been convinced that nothing could rival her potential until that fight at Oxford. Now the question remained of just how this new girl had evaded his extensive notice for an even longer period than the budding Lady of Light.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Oslo tapped another key, fast-forwarding some of the compiled tapes, pausing both of them at the points where he wanted. On the one screen to his right the monitors cast irritating horizontal lines across an image of Lena part-way through the rather stunning transformation into what was unmistakably the Lady of Light. The young girl stood proud and tall as she held the rock in both hands; the light which would form the figure was just in the midst of spreading out from her body, her eyes two glowing pools of seijinn blue.

On his left, however, was a very different story. The adolescent girl was half-kneeling on the ground with her arms tensed straight out and her head thrown back. Her eyes and mouth were both wide open with blue flames pouring out from both even as they spread across her arms and exploded outwards like wildfire. Oslo raised an eyebrow and then clicked the key, waited a moment and then tapped it again, pausing the tape a few seconds later when the phoenix had emerged. He did the same thing for the screen on the left so that he was looking at the Lady of Light and the firebird side by side. It was a study in contrasts. Oslo had always known that Lena would grow into even more incredible power (part of the reason he had wanted to capture her as soon as possible), but this-this teenager and that bird she turned into! If anything it was more powerful but…

"But there is no control to that power," a voice said from the shadows behind him. The dictator blanched and whipped around, his hands glowing as he prepared to fight the intruder. He stood up quickly from his chair, his mind racing as he tried to figure out just how anyone had managed to get past his guard and his own seijinn senses. He mentally made a note to collect a few heads as he prepared to face the figure in the shadows.

"There's no need for that," the unsettlingly familiar voice said as the man stepped forward and lit his own hand, holding it near his face. Oslo took a slight step back and frowned in mild confusion.

"Darius?" he asked hesitantly

"Hardly," The intruder scoffed as he approached and came further into the light. The moment his features were more visible it became quite clear that it was not Oslo's brother; the hair had thrown him off but the pallor of the face and the set of the features were not his twin's. They were his own. The man smirked at him fondly "Don't tell me you don't recognize the finest seijinn in all of skyland?"

**8888888**

Dianne sighed tiredly and ran her fingers through her hair, pausing the motion to scratch just behind the base of her skull noting the amount of grit present with mild irritation due to the itch that it was causing. She was stalling poorly, having wanted to avoid this conversation. She glanced up at Mahad and Dahlia.

"I guess you figured out that my name's not Dianne?" the teenager started. The rebels largely gave her a 'look' with one exception.

"You're Lena, aren't you? From the future?" Cheng asked. Dianne/Lena blinked slightly and turned to look at him as though surprised that he were the one to mention it. She said nothing to that effect, however, and simply shrugged.

"Might as well keep calling me Dianne though, it'll be less confusing," she told them before taking a deep breath "But you're right. I…am a time traveler. Never thought it would be something I'd say out loud, but there it is,"

"You're Lena?" Mahad repeated, still trying to process this.

"Yes," she sighed

"From the future?"

"_Yes_,"

"Like…the future?"

"Mahad!" the rebels all chorused in annoyance. The time traveler said nothing, she simply stared at him. It was the same way many of the others had caught her staring at them, but it was only with this revelation that they were able to place the emotions; longing and a deep sadness. Dahlia's neutral expression fell slightly as she took a step forward.

"Lena—er," she paused when the youngest of the dark-haired seijinns looked up automatically. "Maybe Dianne is easier…er, Dianne," she began again. Wayan, too, had caught on to this.

"Dianne, why did you come back to this time?" he asked, once again looking her over from head to toe quickly. He remembered how light she had been when he'd half-carried her back to the Saint Nazaire following their encounter with Shinsiki. Even without taking into account the recent injuries they'd witnessed, she wasn't in the best of shape. "What happens?"

The teenager turned her head towards him wearily.

"Nothing good," she told them as she reached up to massage her forehead with her thumb and middle finger. She heaved a heavy sigh and made eye contact with each of them in turn. "Where—_when_ I'm from, the Vector and I are the only ones left. Oslo doesn't just run the guardians, he runs the _Sphere_. His power is absolute. He's won…"

"But you're obviously still free! He can't have won, there has to still be hope!" Cheng exclaimed

"You _seriously_ overestimate me," Dianne grumbled "Or at least you overestimate _It_. I spend my time running and hiding and trying to keep from demolishing everything whenever I lose my temper. Ha, I should have told you my name was Carrie White,"

The rebels blinked and stared at her with incomprehension once again.

"Right," she muttered to herself. "_I'm_ the one who lived in a Library,"

"I live in a library?" Lena asked in confusion. The time traveler didn't deign to answer that. Instead she cracked her neck again and frowned, partly in discomfort and partly in curiosity.

"Did the people attacking the block get away? What were they—the Karzem convicts again?"

"Don't you already know?" Wayan asked her good-naturedly.

"No…" Dianne replied with a sigh as she kneaded her fingers into a spot at the back of her neck, working at a particularly bad knot just below and between a couple of the puncture wounds. She winced and rolled her head back slightly to lean back against the sofa, "I'm changing things, remember? I don't _think_ that block was supposed to have been demolished…but maybe it'll work out for the greater good,"

"And where were ye while we were fighting them?" Cortez asked her "You were so desperate to come with us and then you disappeared before we even started to fight,"

Dianne froze, her eyes opening and her hand falling from the back of her neck. Slowly she sat up a little straighter.

"Right. That. There's something you need to know, _now_. I'm…I'm not the only one who came here. From my time,"

Several of the rebels blinked. Mahad and Dahlia caught on the quickest.

"Oh no," Mahad groaned "You're not—you can't mean—_really_?"

"Sorry, believe me when I say that the idea of two of him is straight out of my nightmares," suddenly a look of horror crossed her face to quickly be replaced by one of weary despair, the threat of tears in her voice when her mouth opened and closed several times before she was able to form the words. "Great Skyland…I'm the only one left—he got the Vector, that's the only explanation. I'm the only one left! I'm the only…"

"Calm down," Mila told her as she took a seat next to the distressed adolescent. She was shaking almost violently as she fisted her hands in her hair, her deep, shaky breaths threatening hyperventilation. The mother put a hand on her back and started to rub it in circles. "It's alright,"

Dianne closed her mouth when her teeth started to chatter and she moved her hands to grip her arms.

"I'm okay…" she managed to grunt out around her shuddering "Part of it's the excelerium. Detoxing on the newer formula's not fun…"

Cortez frowned slightly, noting the way that the time traveler seemed to move away from Mila as she shuddered without even realizing it, something that struck him as odd. He said nothing though, and filed it away as concern overrode any curiosity when the shudders increased until it resembled more of a seizure than a shiver. She rocked back and forth and took deep, slow, shuddering breaths.

"I'm f-fine," she insisted, rubbing her hands over the goose-flesh that was rising on her arms. She seemed to recover herself rather quickly, though still seemed tired and even out of breath from her brief episode.

"Kale," she said. When the gladiator turned and looked at her she added "My Kale. When can I see him?"

"Not now," The Vector said, "I'd still prefer to keep him under observation,"

The teenager's expression was difficult to read at this, but she didn't press the point. All she did was nod before changing the subject again.

"Back to Oslo,"

"It's alright. It's two of him. We also have two of you," Cheng said to both of the other seijinns in the room as Mila put a blanket around the elder's shoulders. 'Dianne's' eyes flicked up to Lena from beneath her stray strands of hair and then returned to staring at the floor, not responding to the comment as she shivered into the blanket. When she had collected herself again she sat up a little straighter.

"Fine, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," she agreed. When she looked up at them she seemed suddenly teary again. Stiffly she got to her feet. "You're right. I should be enjoying having everyone together for now,"

She limped forward a step and then regained her footing so that her next motion was only a little stiff when she moved towards Cheng. Awkwardly, as though uncomfortable, she leaned down and hugged the young boy briefly. He quickly responded with affection and shrugged at Cortez over her shoulder before hugging her back.

"We're glad to have you, Lena…and Lena," Cheng said first to the teenager and then leaning to the side to include the younger seijinn.

The time traveler nodded and patted his shoulder once.

"Thanks," she told him before combative again in her tone "So, now that you know my secret, how about a few of yours between friends—and _family_,"

The teenager gave Mila a sidelong glance and then turned her head to look at the older woman directly.

"Do you want to tell them?" she asked "Or shall I?"

"Tell us what?" Mahad asked. Both he and Lena frowned in confusion, as did Cheng and Kale, but the Cortez, Wayan and Dahlia all suddenly perked with interest. The Vector looked like he felt caught between a rock and a hard place.

"Mom, what is she—I—_she_ talking about?" Lena asked, stumbling over how to address her counterpart. Mila looked stricken. She opened and closed her mouth several times without saying anything, looking around at each of them in turn and finding nothing but concern and unspoken demand in the faces around her.

"When was the last time you saw her use her powers?" Dianne asked simply. Mahad and Lena made to answer only to realize to their dismay that they didn't know. They hadn't noticed. The two of them hadn't grown up with regular displays of seijinn power from their mother so it hadn't struck them as odd when she didn't display them routinely once she'd settled in.

"Hm. Well, ask the Vector," The teenaged girl said, getting to her feet. She held the blanket around her with one hand and headed towards the ladder leading to the attic room. As she passed the younger seijinn she couldn't stop herself from remarking "I'm surprised you didn't notice, _Milady_,"

"You mean you're surprised that _we_ didn't notice," Lena snapped just when the time traveler placed her hand on the railing to ascend the stairs. The teenager whipped around at this to glare at her counterpart. She glanced over towards the room where the Vector kept his machines.

"Don't waste the power on that thing. We've established who everyone is," she grumbled.

"Where are you going?" Cheng asked, concerned and curious.

"To sleep this off," was the groan just before the time traveler disappeared through the trapdoor.

The Rebels blinked, still processing the information. If they had learned one thing from her somewhat obtuse confession, though, it was that they shouldn't become accustomed to the luxury of wasting time to process it. Besides, neither Mahad nor Lena was quite as interested in the time traveler as they were in one of the spoilers she'd given them.

"What was she talking about, mom?" Lena asked

"We'll discuss this later," Mila said quietly

"I don't know, I think now sounds like a good time," Mahad retorted rebelliously, his tone all too reminiscent of the fights he and his mother had been having before she was captured. His mother's head whipped around to look at him sharply the way that she often had back then

"I said later, Mahad," She said firmly. Neither of her children looked interested in avoiding this question.

"Vector, did you know about this? What's been going on?" Lena demanded, rounding on the old man who was looking distinctly uncomfortable. Not that anyone was particularly comfortable.

"Perhaps we should leave them to it?" Dahlia murmured to Cortez.

"I second that," Wayan remarked. Without another word Dahlia, Wayan, Cortez, an ashen-faced Kale and Cheng slipped out the back door of the Lighthouse. Once there they started to collectively head back to the village.

"So who's going to talk to this Julian guy?" Dahlia asked "He's secured in the holding cell, twenty-four hour guard,"

"Maybe we should have a seijinn with us when we interview him? Make sure he's telling us the truth?"

"We'd need a good telepath we can trust," Dahlia pointed out.

"What about Celia?" Cheng suggested brightly

"No," Cortez said firmly. "I don't want to have children there until I know just what he's capable of now. The fewer civilians and seijinn children he can identify, the better,"

"There's also Di Wan," Kale growled. It was one of the few things that he had said since the DNA results had come back about his…counterpart. He glanced up at Dahlia as he made the statement. The other blonde wasn't sure she liked that look. The Captain jumped in before anything could (immediately) be made of it.

"She's in a different holding cell and still cooperating, for now. Lena will come with me to talk to her,"

"If she's acting, she's pretty committed to it," Wayan said. "I mean she's saved Dahlia and Mahad's lives a couple of times now,"

Dahlia frowned at that and stared at a point somewhere at the edge of the block and shrugged

"I'm her sister. No denying it anymore. Doesn't mean she's saving me to be a sister though. She might just think I'm more useful to her alive and Mahad's either a coincidence or for Oslo,"

"Or she _could_ have changed," Wayan reiterated. His comrade and co-pilot looked around at him sharply and opened her mouth to say something before closing it, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"…Maybe," she allowed, her hands coming to rest on her hips as she chewed at the corner of her mouth. "We'll have to see,"

Cortez sighed.

"Right then. Let's get to it," he said before dolling out orders.

8888888888888888888888

Meanwhile, partway across skyland, Victoria was trying to maintain calm on the Oxford block. After the experiences they'd had, she didn't blame them for being anxious. She, too, felt a certain amount of unease when she looked through the telescope she'd brought with her up to the distinctive Oxford Tower. It had been one of the few buildings not to have been damaged from recent events and the Professor was glad of it. Victoria shifted the rifle strapped to her back that she had grabbed from her office along with the old telescope the moment one of her students had run in to tell her about the strange sky.

It was strange, too. It was also a little bit too much like Cortez's description of what his ship had seen a few weeks ago just before a rather dangerous creature had shown up in the middle of a battle with the Sphere. Victoria, though she occupied a neutral, unoccupied block, was thoroughly sick of the bloody Sphere. The eye that she was looking through the lens with widened and then narrowed when she saw a shape exit the ominous anomaly in the sky. It was some kind of small ship…

"What do you think, professor?" The student asked from behind her, interrupting her train of though. The professor's mouth was set in a grim line as she collapsed the telescope with an echoing click and handed it to the youth.

"I don't know," she told him, slinging her rifle around into her hands and heading off. After everything that they had been through in the last little while, she wasn't ready to take any crap from anyone and was willing to protect her block, her friends and her students at all costs. She charged down the stairs, out of the building and down the street purposefully, heading straight for the edge of the block. By the time she had come around to where the air-vehicle had been headed the thing had landed and the hatch had opened. Grinding her teeth, Victoria hoisted the rifle up and trained it on the spot where the occupant was exiting, planting her feet in a stable position and looking as threatening as possible. Let whoever it was this time know that this block would fight to defend itself! Let them try—

When the occupant straightened and hopped out of the hatch slowly the blood drained from Victoria's face. Her finger came away from the trigger and trembled and she slowly lowered the weapon in shock as she openly stared, her eyes nearly popping out of her head.

"That's impossible…" she gasped.

888888888888888

It was several hours after she had retreated up to the attic that the time-traveling Lena moved from the position she had laid herself: out across the floor with her ear to the wood, listening. She had fallen asleep at one point; she wasn't lying about her need to sleep off the adverse effects of her massive excelerium dosing. She couldn't do that yet, though. Apart from eating the specially-made rations that her Vector had designed for her, she had something else she had to do. The moon was up by the time she dared to go back downstairs, moving with the utmost care to remain as quiet as taking the utmost care to move as quietly as possible. The Vector, if his routine had always been the same (she had no reason to think otherwise; he was very much a creature of habit. It was why he was so damned stupid about never leaving the lighthouse) then he would have gone to bed at least half an hour ago. He was troubled with everything that had happened and had probably used one of his water ration on a good, soothing tea to help him drift off. He wouldn't have taken anything too strong though, as he did have a patient. He probably had a monitor rigged to one of the computers in his room to alert him should anything change with poor Kale. She would have to be _very_ quiet.

Lena's heart thudded in her chest with an unusual amount of anxiety regarding what she was doing; she spent her life lying and sneaking around and stealing so she didn't know why she was so nervous about this. She wasn't even used to having her powers at night, yet still her nerves were on edge while she slid a pair of old gloves on.

She did know, though, really, she mused as she tucked a strand of long, straight hair behind her ear and opened the laptop. Glancing around the room quickly and pausing again to listen she reached into the back pocket of her thick baggy pants and pulled out the small rectangular device that she had pick-pocketed earlier when she'd hugged Cheng. The computer wasn't password protected; but then again it was a near-archaic model that the Vector and Cheng had apparently refitted for up-to-date memory capacity or whatever. It was something that the Vector did on a regular basis; refit and re-program and re-model the actual computer stored in the laptop's old shell. Lena never knew what his attachment was to the damn thing, but at the moment she didn't care. Sliding the rectangular device into the slot on the side she waited and then clicked on the icon that appeared on the bottom of the screen.

The Lena that these rebels knew didn't know anything about computers. The time traveler had been forced to learn in order to continually avoid detection, though she would still never be any kind of programmer. Nevertheless, she had had 3 different methods of cyber sabotage drilled into her head. With a few clicks and taps of keys she was finished. Glancing up again, the teenager then slipped out the rectangular device again and slipped into the other room with the machine, tapping another few keys on the console. There was an abrupt halt in the hum that the device emitted. She slid the device in and with two of the three codes that she had been drilled into her head her work was done. Crouching down the seijinn put the computer stick on the floor.

"Sorry Cheng_,_"She murmured to herself once she was safely back in her little attic room and curled up on the cot "Nothing personal. At least…not _very_,"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: What I hope is an interesting chapter and I know that it poses as many if not more questions than it answers. I will endeavour to hurry up with the next one, but I can make no promises. Let me know what you think!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note: Woohoo! Finally finished exams and finally got this chapter up! It's a nice long one for you, hopefully it's not too rough. I really wanted to get it posted after this (usual) long wait. **

**Chapter 17**

"Mom, what were they talking about back there? Mom? Mom, stop! _Talk to us_!" Mahad first badgered and then begged his mother the moment they walked through the door to their house. She had kept up a brisk pace from the lighthouse to the little cottage they shared as a family, a pace quick enough to make them doubt what the others had said.

"Mom, what were they talking about?" Lena asked

"Nothing," Mila half-snapped before softening her tone again "Children, I'm fine, don't worry yourselves—"

The seijinn stopped mid-sentence off as she swayed slightly and was prompted to reach a hand out to steady herself.

"Mom!" Mahad exclaimed, rushing forward to steady her. It was a scene too reminiscent of karzem for his liking. He steadied her with one hand cupping her elbow and the other at her back, leaning in to take some of her weight whilst he helped her to a chair.

"You're _not_ okay mom," Lena stated with concern as she knelt down in front of her mother. "Please, what's going on? What's happening? How long has it been going on?"

"If you're sick we need to know. We need to make you better," Mahad said, crouching down next to his sister and looking up at his tired mother. Mila sighed and leaned her forehead into her hand tiredly.

"Mom, what's going on?" Lena asked again. Their mother looked up at them and for the first time in months the siblings allowed themselves to see the shadows beneath their mother's eyes and the lines of weariness etched into her face. They noticed the pallor of her face and how tired she was, how easily she seemed to tire these days. Now they had allowed themselves to see this they couldn't unsee it and they feared it. Mila, in turn, could see the fear in her children's faces and shook her head slightly.

"I don't know," she replied honestly "It's been like this for a long time. At first I thought it was just weakness to be expected from being kept sedentary for so long. I thought it would pass,"

"But it's not just you getting tired, is it?" Mahad asked slowly. His mother shook her head again.

"I can't…I can't use my powers. Whenever I do, whenever I try, it's…unpleasant,"

"It's because of what Oslo did to you, isn't it?" Lena demanded angrily, jumping to her feet with her fists clenched. Her mother dropped her head slightly and closed her eyes against the memories of Oslo standing in front of her as his machine pulled her powers, her essence, away from her and stripped her of her seijinn strength. The invasion of her psychic self, the violation of it…

She forced herself to look back at her children

"Probably. The Vector thinks that there might have been some adverse effects, yes, and I would have to agree it seems likely. But we don't know for sure. I haven't been exposed to excelerium or to Oslo's contraption for months now and I haven't been getting better,"

"No. You've been getting worse," Mahad said darkly. "Haven't you?"

Mila nodded. She then forced a smile onto her face.

"You children shouldn't worry about me. I'll muddle through,"

"No Mom, you need help. We'll figure this out. We'll get you better," Lena said with determination as she reached forward and hugged her mother tightly. Mahad nodded in agreement and put his hand over Mila's when she reached out to grip his shoulder briefly. After she let go and returned Lena's embrace with both arms. The young pilot watched the two of them as he sat back on his heels, thinking. They did not know what was going to happen to their mother or how her…condition would progress, what would happen to her or even what they could do to help her.

But there _was_ someone who did.

**8888588858858588**

When Dianne came down from her little alcove room the next morning she saw the Vector at his laptop, typing furiously.

"Good morning," She greeted. The old man practically jumped out of his skin at her words and whipped around to see her.

"Oh! Dianne—Lena…I mean—" he started, the revelation of the previous day fresh in his mind.

"I didn't expect to see you up this early," He commented.

"It doesn't seem that early to me. Seijinns tend to be early risers unless external factors interfere,"

"Well there were some strenuous external factors in your case," The Vector pointed out. His gaze flicked to the tendrils of black that snaked across her skin that indicated the continuing presence of excelerium in her system. It worried him that the substance lingered in her body; he had no idea how to predict the effects that such prolonged exposure would have in the long term. Dianne didn't appear to be concerned, though his gaze did make her uncomfortable. She cleared her throat and shifted slightly.

"Yeah well…my body's used to being put through the wringer," she told him as she rubbed her still-aching neck. That was a muscle ache which would remain with her for a good week at least, given that it was the entry site for the excelerium that was still in her system and continued to interfere with her abilities. She glanced down at the computer screen and jerked her head at it. "Everything okay?"

The Vector looked back at his computer systems and frowned at it.

"The data on half of my instruments has been completely scrambled. It's all across different systems, there doesn't seem to be much of a pattern…"

Dianne leaned forward to look over the Vector's shoulder. There was a pattern; he just didn't see it yet. She would have to help him with that. Her face betrayed nothing, however. She was an accomplished liar by now. Her features remained in a carefully schooled in an expression of mild, innocent concern.

"I'm afraid I've never really been much of a computer person. I just learned enough to get by," She told the Vector. This much was true. The old man did not know yet how much had been required to 'get by', however.

"Oh, I know," he assured her "I'm sure I'll be able to fix it,"

"Why don't you ask Cheng? He's still your friend in this time, isn't he?" she asked casually. She received the reaction she had expected.

"Well of course he is—what do you mean?" The Vector began with a slight laugh before he registered what she said and turned sharply, his tone acquiring a slight urgency to it. Dianne blanched, looking appropriately abashed at having been 'caught' in a slip of the tongue. She opened and closed her mouth a few times and spluttered a little in the expected fashion

"I…I-I mean…never mind. Forget I said anything," she said. She didn't look him in the eye.

"What do you mean 'still our friend'?" The Vector pressed.

"I shouldn't have said anything. Forget it," Dianne insisted as she started to walk away.

_Follow me, follow me, follow me…_She muttered inside her head. Her expression and demeanor betrayed none of these thoughts and certainly did not give away the satisfaction that flowed through her when the old man followed her into the other room.

"No, what did you mean by 'still our friend'?"

"Let's drop this," Dianne replied flippantly as she turned around with an irritated shrug of her shoulders and an exasperated expression on her face. "I thought you agreed with me about not telling you stuff about the future,"

The Vector paused mid-motion, his hand still raised to implore her to tell the truth, his mouth open with the question half-formed. At her words he stopped and slowly lowered his hand, his brow furrowing and mouth setting in a thin line as he considered her words. Eventually he nodded.

"Yes, yes I suppose you're right," he said. "I suppose that I shall go and see what I can do about the systems…Thankfully the blue sky program only failed over other non-strategic blocks…forgive me, how are you feeling this morning?"

"I'll be fine. Few days to detox is all I need. I'm thinking of trying to sweat it out," Dianne replied.

"Ah," The Vector replied as made his way back to the damaged computer "You know, that is a bit of an old wives' tale; your sweat only cleanses the body of minute amounts of toxins. Its primary function is in the regulation of body temperature usually,"

Dianne smiled slightly with a slight chuckle of amusement. She pulled out another of those bars she had been eating regularly since she woke up. She crinkled the wrapping as she tore it open and broke the bar in half, pulling the rest of the wrapper over the top of the bottom half and re-pocketed it. She bit into the no-color lump and chewed quickly, showing no indication of the food's taste, if there was any. With that she walked out of the lighthouse quickly to avoid any further discussion. The Vector watched her make her way down the hill, the incline prompting her to jog slightly with short, trotting strides until she reached the leveling out of the ground when she continued her determined striding in the direction of the gym. Once she was well out of sight the old man returned to his computers with a frown. Her words echoed in his head as he continued to try and repair the damage to the systems.

**888888887888877**

Wanda was sitting in the little room that she had been brought to blindfolded earlier. The windows were boarded but there was a little lamp and it was lightly furnished, much like the room she had briefly quitted in Aida and Spencer's home. She wryly wondered if she was to be left in this little cell with as much to do. Her own company was losing its luster; she might go mad with boredom if left to her own devices for much longer. Either that or reconsider her options.

Currently the seijinn was failing to amuse herself by arranging and rearranging the contents of the small wooden bowl filled with dried fruits and nuts which sat on the small table. She had built a small tower, a small ship and turned one nut into a rudimentary coin by etching in symbols on either side of it. She at least wanted some books, she thought with irritation. She had, after all, spared _Mahad _of all people. Surely that should have at least warranted _something_. Well perhaps it had; there was a checkered board with a set of playing pieces left on a box, but the activity required a partner.

The rebels were as stubborn and ignorant as the Sphere they fought, she fumed to herself. What would it take to convince them of her inability and lack of motivation to return to the Sphere? Perhaps she should reconsider the notion of returning home. If she brought a prize, even just information, and a good story she might just worm her way back in. Perhaps she'd have to start from the bottom again, perhaps spend a few months in detention, but she was already in detention so really, what did she have to lose?

The only problem with that question was that the seijinn, be she Wanda or Di Wan, knew the answer.

The sound of the door opening made her jump slightly. She made to stand up when she saw her sister walk in and only relaxed at the slight movement of Dahlia's hand to indicate for her to stay sitting.

"Dahlia," Wanda greeted carefully.

"Di…Wanda," Dahlia corrected herself when she saw the other woman's face shift slightly at the start of her old name. The blonde rebel took a deep breath. "It's going to take me a while,"

Wanda nodded.

"Me too," she admitted. Dahlia nodded at this and walked over to the wall on the other side of the room, next to the bed and leaned against it. Wanda turned in her chair to continue facing the rebel. Dahlia crossed her arms over her chest and examined the toe of one boot with her eyebrows raised.

"You saved my life,"

"Potentially," was the reply

"You probably saved Mahad's life,"

"Likely," Wanda sighed, sounding bored. She gave her sister an appraising glance and shifted in her chair before remarking "He's important to you. Not just to the Rebellion, but to _you_,"

"He's my crewmate and a friend, yes," Dahlia replied carefully. Wanda raised an eyebrow and the corner of her mouth quirked with amusement at her little sister's obvious denial. Indeed, she seemed quite eager to change the subject given the chance.

"Alright, I'm gonna cut the crap and get straight to the point. You saved our lives,"

"I thought we'd already established that,"

"Thank you," Dahlia said.

"I thought it a show of good faith. I hope Mahad appreciates it," Di Wan grumbled.

"And thank you for diverting that mosquito,"

There was a pause.

"Mahad and your friends may thank me for that but you don't need to. I did that as much for me as for anyone,"

"I don't understand," Dahlia began suspiciously

"Look, whether either of us likes it or not, you're really all I have left right now," the former guardian told her curtly. The rebel crossed her arms over her chest and suddenly seemed to find the shuttered window and bare wall fascinating.

"Are you going to expect me to believe that you're willing to swap loyalties and completely disown the Sphere for _me_?" the blonde asked, her skepticism apparent but not rude. Not quite. The other woman snorted and started to pace around the small room restlessly.

"Just for you? Not entirely. At this point there are a few who have profited from my demise' that I would dearly love to destroy: I might as well try it from without instead of within. But that aside… you are certainly a… factor. You have a hard time with that, Dali?"

"If the positions were reversed, would you expect it from me? Did you ever expect it from me?"

"You were a rebel. I expected if you were ever captured you would break or you would go to Karzem,"

It was Dahlia's turn to scoff.

"This would be why I have a hard time believing you. You would have been willing to throw me to them without a second thought while in power but now that we have the upper hand its sisterhood which prevails? You didn't even say anything last time we captured you,"

"Dali," Wanda said with mild confusion as she stopped pacing "I didn't know it _was _you,"

"Oh please! I'm not the one who changed my name, shaved my head and got a tattoo!" Dahlia pointed out snippily as they went around a back alley.

"No, you were the one who was dead!" Wanda snapped.

This did stop Dahlia in her tracks. Her glare froze on her face and then faltered as she stared at her sister, searching for signs of deceit.

"What?" she asked, working very hard to maintain a neutral tone.

"It's what the records say. It's what they told me two weeks after I got to the academy,"

"And you never checked? Never wrote home?" Dahlia demanded.

"Here I was thinking that you pirates had some semblance of an intelligence system," her sister resorted, sounding beryl much like the woman the rebels had always known. "Academy students don't leave the campus grounds with the exception of planned, supervised excursions for their first four years of study and have no correspondence privileges until their third year. There is no time and it is simply a distraction. Remaining at school helps to foster teamwork and community amongst the students to prepare them for the teamwork and duties they will be expected to perform following theory graduation,"

"Okay, you can stop the propaganda right now," Dahlia interrupted sharply. Di Wan shot her a wry look and then continued.

"I was glad of the rule. I was able to start with a fresh slate and after what I had seen happen I had no interest in writing home. After a year I no longer cared. After two I didn't so much as think about Oxford. My home and family were the Sphere. My future was with the Sphere. And I was never going to be that frightened little ninny they picked up again. I wasn't going to be afraid, I was going to _inspire _fear. I was going to be powerful, and nothing could stop me so long as I obeyed my Master. The Academy taught me that," Di Wan stood straighter as she spoke, her pride apparent. In the next moment, however, the gleam in her eye faltered. "Or at least it did,"

"Not so sure now?"

"You're alive, aren't you?" Di Wan pointed out. Her tone became more distant as she continued "And as we have already pointed out, you tried to save my life when we didn't know each other and then succeeded in your second attempt months later. Besides…I didn't think I could feel that kind of fear when I wasn't the one in danger, much less for a rebel. But since I forum out… well I didn't see a filthy pirate in that ship's path. Much as I wanted to,"

For several long moments neither could find a word to say to one another. They stood in heavy, stony silence. You could cut the air in the room with a knife. After a few moments Dahlia sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. She seemed to be working herself up to say something and finally pulled out a chair from the table with an abrupt screech.

"Well… you wanna play?" she said finally, gesturing to the checkered board

Wanda blinked.

"I beg your pardon?"

The rebel started to arrange the playing pieces on the board.

"Do you want to play?" she asked again without looking up "I' m here to keep an eye on you, but that doesn't mean that we have to just stand around glaring at each other for hours. I'm assuming you know the rules,"

"I taught you the rules," Wanda resorted in disdain as she placed a hand on the back of the offered chair, accepting it. That appeared to be the correct thing to say, for she actually got half a smile from the rebel for a fraction of a second. The pair settled across from one another, grateful for the semblance of a distraction.

"Black pieces or white?" Dahlia asked her.

"Doesn't matter to me," her sister replied with a small smile.

By the time Wayan came to relieve Dahlia the two vaguely resembled a pair of sisters spending time together.

**88888888877777**

The gym was all but abandoned when Mahad slipped through the door. He closed it quietly behind him as he glanced around the room. The thudding sound that had not been audible outside of the large, open room echoed off the walls within. On the open upper level of the converted warehouse the pilot could see the time travelling teenager bouncing on the balls of her feet as she struck the swinging punching bag with ruthless precision. She had apparently re-braided her hair, though stubborn strands still escaped to frame her face. She had also forgone her coat, her black tank top displaying her arms and collarbones. As Mahad climbed the ladder up to where the time traveler was working out he couldn't help but notice how the top of her clavicle bones stuck out atop her shoulders and the way the wiry muscles of her arms seemed to strain under her skin; there was no fat on her body. Even if she was strong, which she seemed to be, she looked painfully underweight. Her tank top seemed to hang off her when Mahad suspected that it was supposed to fit more snugly.

Perhaps it was knowing that she was—or was going to be—his sister, his blood, but he felt protective of her. He felt especially disturbed at the sight of her low weight, not to mention the way some of her veins still ran black. He moved up to hold the bag steady for her, providing extra resistance for her. The teenager didn't even blink and didn't look at him as she whipped a leg around to slam into the punching bag before punching it three times with her left fist. The force of the blows surprised Mahad slightly, but he was used to doing this for Kale and held his ground.

"How's your mother?" she asked him as she started to alternate her punches.

"Don't you know?" he replied

"It's been a long time," she said

"Couldn't have been that long," Mahad remarked, "You're…what? Sixteen? That's only about four years,"

Dianne glanced up at him briefly.

"Almost eighteen," The teenager corrected him. She landed another solid punch on the punching bag before stepping back. She was slightly out of breath with a thin sheen of sweat covering her body and further darkening sections of her tank top. There was an unsettling greyish tint to her that concerned Mahad. He followed her when, without a word, she walked away from the punching bag and went down to the floor on her hands and toes. She held the plank for a moment and then started doing pushups.

"What are you doing?" Mahad asked with a frown of confusion.

"What does it look like?" she inquired quietly with a slight grunt as she continued. Without slowing her movements she looked over at him "Pushups,"

"But…why?"

She brought her knees down so she could shrug.

"I'm bored," she said before going back to the activity.

"Okay…" Mahad said as she finished the number of pushups she'd apparently had in her head. He hadn't been counting but he was sure it was more than twenty. She glanced over at him again as she lowered her knees to the ground and straightened, leaning back on her heels and tossing her hair out of her face only to have the bone straight dark strands swing back to frame her features. She looked at him expectantly for a moment. She was clearly waiting for him to say something. The pilot sighed and moved to stand by the wooden railing overlooking the lower level of the gym. It was fairly high up.

"You like being up high, don't you? You're not like that here. The other you, I mean,"

"Yeah, well…things change," Dianne replied quietly as she got to her feet and came to the railing as well, resting her elbows on the wooden railing and leaning forward slightly. She looked down at the empty space below, watching the sunlight pool in through the windows whilst she avoided looking at the pilot. She didn't fully trust herself with him. It had been so long…longer even than her mother. Already she could feel her chest tightening and forced her face into her carefully controlled neutral mask. He had sought her out for a reason though and it wasn't to spend time with her like she wanted. He had his sister to spend time with and pay attention to. She was a poor replacement and she knew it, so why would he bother? Besides, she had dropped enough bombshells on him.

"Kale, your mother, or both?" she asked him after a pause of awkward silence. Mahad blinked and looked around at her sharply. She didn't have to so much as glance at him to know the expression on his face. The corners of her mouth twitched in something that was almost a smile as she started to pick at her thumbnail absently. "Which are you here to ask me about?"

"Do you mean mom?" Mahad asked

"Pardon?" Dianne inquired, finally looking at him.

"You mean mom, _our_ mom?" Mahad repeated.

"Yeah, of course," she replied with a dismissive wave of her hand and a muttered "Time travel. It messes up pronouns,"

Mahad accepted the explanation with a nod and then continued.

"Yeah, I'm here to ask about mom. But I wouldn't mind knowing about Kale. He's my friend,"

"Well, yeah, 'course he is," Dianne said as though this were a strange thing to say; as though it were an automatic given. She then frowned slightly as though she had remembered something and fished out a half-eaten bar of the congealed oatmeal-like substance they had seen her eating before. It was not something she had gotten from them, either.

"What is that stuff?" Mahad asked as she removed the wrapping from it and started to eat the thing.

"My rations," she told him around her mouthful. "Vector designs them for me later. Without these I'd probably be eating you out of house and home just to keep from wasting away,"

"What do you mean?"

She swallowed her mouthful and motioned to herself with the hand holding the bar.

"Seijinns have high metabolisms," she said "You probably know that already from growing up with your Lena,"

"Well yeah, she—_you_—can eat as much as me," Mahad said. He was a typical adolescent male; he was a bottomless pit. He and his little sister could go days without food and without complaint if there was none available but in the instances of abundance both practically inhaled food.

"Yeah, well, when you have generators in your arms they demand fuel. The Vector makes—_made_ these for me. No idea how, but they work. There's about three thousand calories worth of concentrated nutrients in one of these,"

"You sure they work?" Mahad asked skeptically, again noting her painfully thin frame.

"I've had to ration them lately. Wanted to make them last so that I didn't actually to starve. Didn't want to give the stupid Bird a chance to "save me", or rather save itself," she told him. She straightened and continued in a tone that was forcibly bright. "But now that it's being quiet for a change my metabolism will hopefully have slowed down long enough for me to put some padding on,"

"Right…" The pilot trailed off. That explained a bit, he supposed. But it wasn't what he'd come to ask her about. "So mom…what's wrong with her?"

Dianne looked around at him again.

"Something serious," she answered him honestly "You want to know where it will go from here?"

"Yes," Mahad said. Dianne nodded wearily.

"Not good places. She'll try to rest up, will feel better and get on with her life. She spent 12 years without her powers, so she doesn't think to use them when she can do something with her own two hands any more. But when something comes up, an emergency, she'll push herself. She'll use them, remind everyone of how powerful she is and set it off again. She'll get these attacks again and they'll get worse. She'll have to stop using her powers and rest up again and continue the cycle. She won't stay out of the rebellion because she wants to protect her children and moves into a downward spiral. It's not going to get better. Only worse,"

"But can't we do something?" Mahad demanded "There has to be something we can do! What happens in your time? You have to have cured her!"

"When I'm from we didn't figure it out until it was…bad,"

"And what's going on with her now is not bad?"

"In comparison? No," Dianne informed him.

"So, how do we stop it?'

"I don't know. I can tell the Vector how he treats her later to ease the symptoms, but other than that…I'm not a doctor. They never bothered to fully explain it to me," she told him as she started to head towards the stairs leading down to the ground level.

"And you settled for that? The Lena that I know wouldn't settle for that!" Mahad exclaimed indignantly as he followed behind her

"Well I was…young," she said.

"You're almost thirteen! That's not a little kid anymore, Lena!" Mahad half-yelled. The other teenager whipped around and opened her mouth as though to give an angry retort before she stopped herself. She seemed to almost deflate and turned away from him again.

"Why d'you think I came back? To fix things. Make sure I never happen," she said over her shoulder as she strode to the door of the warehouse and practically threw it open. Her head was starting to pound again; she closed her eyes and winced, her fingers coming up to her temples. There was also a burning sensation along parts of her body that told her the excelerium had to be on its way out of her system. Her powers must be on their way back for the buzzing in the back of her head was sporadically returning. Now she just wanted to get out of the uncomfortable conversation and back to her cool, shaded alcove to press pillows over her eyes and ears in futile attempts to alleviate the discomfort. She took solace in that it would be temporary.

It wasn't until the wooden door swung back in place with a bang that Mahad realized that he had neglected to so much as ask about Kale and that, really, he hadn't gotten much of an answer to his question at all.

**8888888**

Oslo had to admit that he while he might have been skeptical initially, he was enjoying his own company now. Conversing with his future self was in actuality quite fascinating. His oddly younger-looking counterpart lounged in his chair with the easy confidence that complete power afforded, power that Oslo himself used to have an apparently would have again, but it was more than that. This was a man who thought himself invincible, it was in his body language. This was a man who had achieved total victory. At least…near total victory. The glaring exception was clear in the hunger in his eyes; this was a man on a hunt. This man was dangerous. Oslo liked that; he liked that he would be this dangerous, this powerful and secure. He glanced around at the soldiers his counterpart had brought with him.

"It seems that the future is kind to me," the bald Oslo remarked as he took a sip from his wine glass. He was impressed. Few in skyland could afford alcoholic beverages and fewer still brought cases with them when they traveled yet the future Oslo kept some excellent vintages in his ship's food stores.

"The Future had no choice. We are a force to be reckoned with. I forced the tides to turn in my favor as you will too," the Oslo from the future told him. The bald member of the pair cocked his head to the side slightly in curiosity. He knew what he looked like, he knew that when he had captured Mila more than a year ago that she had been unnerved by his appearance though she hadn't shown it. Yet his counterpart looked almost vibrant. Guessing what he was thinking, the blonde Oslo smiled slightly as he sipped his own glass and then extended his index finger away from the glass to gesture at him vaguely.

"You want to know about how your appearance changes," he remarked.

There was a slight pause before the younger member of the duo finally replied

"…Yes. The use of my exceptional powers in the dark appears to have taken its toll on my body. I am curious to know how you have altered that. You must have secured yourself very efficiently to have devoted time to something so…superficial," Oslo said carefully. He found it hard to believe that he would focus on such an insignificant detail with the Farrells still loose and the rebellion still irritating him. His counterpart smiled, however.

"The return of our youth was purely coincidental as a matter of fact," FutureOslo informed him before taking another sip of wine. He smirked and set the glass down, swallowing the drink with a satisfied sigh. He leaned forward and motioned with his hands slightly as he elaborated "Surely you didn't think you would be able to continue on without another, shall we say, recharge?"

"So you recapture Darius? Perhaps his escape was not so unfortunate,"

"No, my friend, you were fortunate that you did not kill him, but no. That weakling could never sustain your needs,"

"But then how—?"

"Tell me, do you remember Shinsiki?" The time travelling Dictator asked him. Oslo frowned slightly as he searched his memory.

"Shinsiki…do you mean that deluded harridan who had the gall to think that she could fulfill the prophecy? What of her? Last I heard she had resurfaced only to have the rebels take care of her,"

"You know that you and that pet scientist we eliminated years ago couldn't be the only ones to have taken advantage of Professor Dianne's research," The time traveler stated. "Come to think of it, that woman might have been more useful in her grave than she would have been alive,"

"That incident was still unfortunate. Tibald might have liked a friend. Nevertheless her daughter was useful for a time," Oslo remarked.

"Her progeny have great value, you have yet to realize their importance. But yes, it was a bit of a waste. Nevertheless, the long term-results are undeniably beneficial to us," The time traveler told him. Oslo cocked his head slightly at this but said nothing. Instead he waited patiently for his older self to return to his initial explanation. Right on queue the blonde man returned to the subject at hand

"What your spies never confirmed was that Shinsiki developed light chambers of her own. More advanced light chambers. She did not require the same genetic match as ours to conduct the energy exchange,"

"What?" Oslo demanded, his curiosity fully peaked.

"She even managed to drain Lena,"

"WHAT?!"

"Oh that was long ago, even in this time. Before Karzem," His older self assured him with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Regardless, she was able to modify and enhance the technology. If she weren't so unstable she might be quite brilliant. Lena defeated her of course and her equipment was destroyed,"

"But…?" Oslo inquired leadingly.

"_She_ was not," The blonde Oslo stated. The bald man sat back in his chair. He did not take long to process the information and a sly smirk spread across his face.

"They do not know, do they?" It was more of a statement then a question. At this, however, his counterpart's smug expression fell slightly into one of slight unease.

"I am afraid I do not know. They had, when I lived this time, written her off as someone to watch out for but largely assumed that she had perished along with her laboratory and as such I was able to scoop her up. The Lena who preceded me in our time travels, however, appears to have attracted her. From what I gather they had even captured the harridan again briefly, but she managed to escape, lucky for you. Find her and you will have an unlimited supply of seijinn energy at your fingertips. You will be able to drain any seijinn you choose,"

"I shall be unstoppable!" Oslo enthused.

"Essentially,"

"Those fools who run the Sphere will never be able to stop me now,"

"Correction," FutureOslo interrupted him, "They _would_ not have been able to. It is difficult to ascertain the effects of my Lena's actions,"

"Well with the two of us I am certain that we can more than handle her," Oslo said. "With your knowledge of the rebels' future actions we could capture Lena when she is still young, kill her friends and keep one member of her family alive to inspire her…cooperation,"

"No," The blonde man said firmly, surprising his younger self with the edge to his tone. "It is not in your best interests to do so. There are those among the rebels who_ must _remain alive for your best interests,"

Oslo considered this a moment.

"You are right. From what I hear Tibald Ye is rivaled only by this mysterious Vector the rebels have with them and his own grandson. They should be persuaded to use their skills to further the cause of the Sphere,"

"Very good, my friend, but not quite. The old man never leaves his home. Even I only managed to track him down before I came here. Cheng, on the other hand, is more than useful and he is more pliable, easier to capture and turn. He is my most valuable scientific asset,"

"Nevertheless, I shall enjoy watching Mahad and that friend of his fight and fail,"

"No!" the time traveler repeated even more sharply, making his counterpart blanch slightly with surprise. At seeing the expression on his own, paler face the time travelling dictator softened his tone slightly "No, it is imperative that both of them remain alive. Mahad _and_ Dahlia,"

Oslo blinked. He could not follow this logic; Mahad, perhaps, as a bargaining tool. But the archer?

"Why?" he asked. At this the older Oslo smirked again and reclined back in his chair to resume his confident lounge. He picked up his wine glass and nursed it in his hand a moment.

"Because," he said, a wicked gleam in his eye "While the Lady of Light may be quite the spectacle, not even she can rival the raw power of the Phoenix,"

**8888888**

The Vector had not been having a very good day when Prattucci stormed into the lighthouse.

"Vector, I want an explanation!" The man fumed. He was annoyed and embarrassed; minutes before he had confronted Dahlia and Wayan about the rampant rumors regarding a Guardian being housed on Puerto Angel and it had devolved into a shouting rant in which he had said more than he had meant. He didn't fully remember what it was which had sent Dahlia flying into a near-rage and sent Wayan into that cold, intimidating, scarily calm anger. He thought it had something to do with his remark about her acceptance of seijinns equating to her having not minded Oslo's usurpation of her body months prior.

Upon reflection, Prattucci knew that he had gone too far with Dahlia and fully understood her reaction to him, which was really what had tipped him into his sour mood more than anything. Dahlia and Wayan were two of the few people whom he did actually respect; they had saved his life once. He had not forgotten that, much as his attitude might suggest otherwise and he was upset that he had landed so firmly on their bad side as of late. If he was honest with himself he was also not very happy with his own behavior towards those two individuals. But Seijinns weren't to be trusted, why couldn't two people as intelligent and brave as they were _see_ that? He also quite definitely did not appreciate the way the computer systems across the block seemed to be going haywire. He stomped his way up the spiral staircase to see that he was not the only one with a complaint.

"What is it Prattucci?" Cortez demanded in irritation, straightening from where he had been slightly bent over to peer down at one of the computer screens in front of the Vector. The Captain did not look in any better mood than Prattucci was and the black-market merchant eased back on his scowl, not wanting to push the Captain's buttons so soon after getting on his Lieutenants' bad side. Mila was even there, just as she always seemed to be these days. All of them looked concerned and mildly irritated. Nevertheless, Prattucci was a valued citizen of Puerto Angel and thought of himself as an important person. After a moment of hesitation he puffed out his chest and continued stomping up the remaining three stairs.

He regretted asking almost immediately when the merchant quickly threw himself into a long rant about the various technical problems he and his customers had apparently been having all day.

"The Blue Sky program hasn't been affected, has it?" Mila asked with concern after a minute or two of this rant.

"No," The Vector assured her, "No, the Blue Sky Program is run from my personal computer with only the top security protocols attached to it. I learned from our scare with it last time. No, it hasn't been affected,"

"But a number of the—"

"St. Nazaire's systems have been affected?" A voice from somewhere above them interrupted the captain. They all turned as one to see that the trapdoor to the alcove had been opened and Dianne was sitting with one leg hanging over the side of the entrance, watching them. There was a slight pause and both Cortez and Prattucci scowled.

"Aye," Cortez admitted slowly. "And you know that because…"

"Because it happened before and it's happening again," Dianne replied. Placing one hand behind her slightly she hopped down from the alcove, skipping the stairs entirely and landing in a slight crouch before straightening. "I think you already know what the pattern is,"

The Vector blanched at this and then suddenly busied himself. The other rebels noticed this behavior and blinked slightly in surprise. It was not like the Vector to withhold his theories.

"Well?" Cortez asked "_Do_ you?"

"There doesn't seem to be a common thread. The systems seem almost random…except for one thing," The old man admitted

"And what's that?" Prattucci demanded. The Vector looked almost nervous.

"It could simply be a coincidence," he told them emphatically.

"What could be Vector? Spit it out," The Captain snapped, reaching the end of his patience. The old scientist looked from one person to the next, feeling helpless. His gaze eventually settled on the dark-haired young woman who had inadvertently led him to the pattern he had discovered. He seemed to deflate as he sighed and shook his head.

"The systems were definitely affected by a computer hack. The codes that were used are ones that I have never seen before; they're very good. And the programs that have been affected have all been worked on by…Cheng," He admitted reluctantly.

"_What_?" The Rebels and Prattucci exclaimed in unison. The merchant felt his temper rise again.

"I don't believe it! The boy is a traitor!" He exclaimed with indignation.

"Shut up Prattucci!" Cortez bellowed at him, taking a step towards the smaller man and forcing him to back up a few paces "One more word out of you and I swear I'll—"

"Cortez," Mila cut across him in warning. She had learned in her short residence here that even if the unpleasant man was not exactly popular he did supply the tavern and a number of their supplies and he certainly had a habit of gossiping. He was rarely taken seriously on Puerto Angel but he travelled to many blocks. The Captain continued to scowl at Prattucci but desisted. The little man was on his last nerve, however. Jumping so quick to conclusions about Cortez's adopted son was bold even for him.

"There must be some mistake," Mila said as he turned to the Vector. "I mean, it doesn't make sense for Cheng to sabotage his own work. Could he have been hacked? Could someone be targeting him?"

"At first I wondered that too, but…"

Dianne frowned slightly

"I don't understand," she lied easily "Just how extensive is the data corruption?"

"Extensive," The Vector admitted. "Even the DNA sequencer was affected, though not the seijinn projects that only I have access too. There was also evidence of…"

No one missed the way he trailed off.

"Of…?" Prattucci demanded

"Of a transmission," The old man finally said. His reluctance was written all over him.

"Maybe he was trying to connect with his grandfather," Mila pointed out.

"Or following in his footsteps!" Prattucci flared.

"This is Cheng we're talking about," Wayan reminded them incredulously. "You can't seriously be suspicious of him! He's twelve and he's grown up here. The Sphere has a bounty on his head big enough to make someone rich. He doesn't have a motive to do something like this,"

"Unless someone offered to make that go away," Dianne muttered just loud enough for them to hear her. She was still standing apart from them and forced them to turn their heads to see her. She looked away when they did and shifted as though she were uncomfortable; as though she had said something that she had not intended to. Cortez's eyes narrowed. His temper was up; his back was up at the insinuation against his adoptive son but this was another member of his crew he was looking at, and he felt protective enough of her not to bellow and to remain in his 'Captain mode'.

"What do ye know?" he asked, his tone commanding, but calm. The time traveler they were still calling 'Dianne' looked him in the eye but said nothing. Instead she walked towards the spiral staircase, her shoulder thumping against Prattucci's forcefully. The merchant let out a dramatic exclamation that everyone ignored.

"Lena," Cortez said, deciding to use her real name to see if it would prompt an answer from her as he took a step towards the staircase. The teenager stopped partway down at his voice. "What do ye know?"

The others crowded around the railing to watch her with anticipation. They could only see her back and her long pony tail and could only imagine her expression. What they imagined was quite different from the slight smirk that she was battling back. By the time she had glanced over her shoulder, however, it was gone and the dark, melancholy look had returned to her face.

"I am trying to change things," She reminded them truthfully. "I don't want what I know to apply,"

For several seconds she and Cortez locked intense gazes. Finally the captain set his mouth in a grim line.

"Wayan," he ordered, "Take Prattucci home and then get Cheng here. Mahad, Lena and Dahlia, too. I want to get to the bottom of this,"

"But Cortez…!" Prattucci started, not wanting to be kept out of the loop. Dianne couldn't keep from sneering slightly at his outrage.

"What about Di Wan? Dahlia's supposed to be with her 24/7 and if Lena's with us…" Wayan pointed out. The time traveler rolled her eyes in apparent exasperation.

"You don't need to worry about Wanda," She told them as she walked down the rest of the stairs and went to sit on the couch. She frowned in discomfort when she did so and stuck her hand into her buttoned back pocket, retrieving the radio she had put back there earlier whilst she'd been working out to keep it from dropping anywhere. She was about to put it back into her front pocket when the sound of someone approaching caused her to pause and glare at Prattucci.

"I've got my eye on you," He snarled at her.

"I'm _terrified_," she growled sarcastically through clenched teeth. Had he a little more sense he would have fled from that stare as opposed to merely jumping slightly and allowing Wayan to usher him out the door. She put the radio down on the table absently and watched him go with a dangerous and familiar flash flitting across her gaze. Mila noticed this brief burst of light across the girl's retinas and frowned slightly, but said nothing at this. Instead she moved forward to put a comforting hand on the teenager's back when she suddenly grimaced widely and clutched her head in response to a flash of pain. It seemed to pass relatively quickly, though.

Wayan was back within half an hour with the requested people in tow. Cheng was, predictably, upset about the accusations when they were put to him.

"What are you talking about? I haven't even worked on half of those systems in over a week! I never sent any message, I had no idea the systems had been damaged, I haven't been on my computer yet today!" he exclaimed indignantly.

"For Skyland's sake! You shouldn't be worried about her!" Dianne snapped without warning, gesturing to Wanda briefly even as she winced again at a flash of pain somewhere along her ribcage. "You should be worried about _him_. Don't believe him,"

"That's it, you can't be me!" Lena snapped as she stepped between the time traveler and her friend. "I know Cheng, and I know that he would never do this,"

Just then several of the rebels' radios went off. Cortez sighed at the interruption and rubbed his temples as he turned away to quickly answer it; the alarm on his radio was one people used for emergencies. He listened to Kale's description and then turned to Dahlia.

"Dahlia, there's something been sighted approaching the block, would you mind getting a look at it? Tell me if it seems anything serious," he told her. The blonde nodded curtly and headed out, patting Cheng on the shoulder in support on her way out.

"I'll be right back. We'll sort this out, don't worry," she assured him. The little boy nodded to her before turning back to the time traveler.

"But…but Lena," Cheng said to the time traveler, visibly hurt "Why? We're—we're friends! You know I would never do anything like this, why are you against me?"

"Because we," Dianne pointed to Cheng and then herself aggressively "Are _not_ friends,"

"Wha—what do you mean?" The boy spluttered in disbelief. The others were also alarmed at her sudden mood swing. A few of them, namely Mila, Wayan and Dahlia, also noticed a flash of blue down the veins on her left arm and the right side of her jugular.

"What do you think I mean?" Dianne half-growled as she massaged her forehead with her fingertips. In the heat of their arguing no one noticed the radio on the table start to make sounds. No one but Wanda.

"Excuse me," she started before being cut off by the young woman

"I mean that you all need to check yourselves! Aren't I warning enough? Great Skyland, victory really did make some of you complacent!"

"What ," Wanda tried again when the device on the table continued to make noises.

"We would fix what you seem to have problems with if you would just tell us!" Mahad heatedly. "Apparently you only get more stubborn in teenagers, Squirt!"

"_Listen_!" Wanda finally yelled, prompting them all to turn around and glare at her. She glared back "If any of you paid attention to anything you would notice that that thing has been beeping for almost half a minute!" she pointed at the radio on the table which had started the argument. Dianne blinked and then hurried over to pick it up. She moved to walk away with it only to have Cortez stand in front of her and cross his arms over his chest, a clear signal that she would be doing this in public. The time traveler glared at him but otherwise did and said nothing. Instead she looked at the communicator with a perplexed expression of cautious hope as she tapped a few buttons. The small, round view screen fizzed with static as she fiddled with it, a few of the rebels cautiously moving to look over her shoulder as garbled words became distinguishable.

"…na…n you…me? Come in…Lena, do you read me?" A feeble old voice cracked

"Vector?" Dianne asked carefully "That you?"

"Lena!" The static cleared enough on the view screen for her old friend to be visible. As she fiddled with the dials and he did the same on his end the image became clearer. The old man smiled and gestured to the screen to the person standing behind his shoulder "You see, Alice, I told you it would work!"

"Alice?" Dianne asked with a frown.

"Whoa!" Mahad exclaimed from over her shoulder at the sight of the haggard, ancient looking face, unable to believe that the elderly man would age quite that much in just a few short years. "Vector, you do _not_ age well!"

"Is that Mahad?" The very old man in the communicator asked joyfully "Is that your—"

"Yes," the teenager interrupted him quickly. "Yes, it worked. I'm in the past. We overshot it a bit, though. How…Vector how did you manage this link? And who…?"

"Lena, there is something you must know. Oslo—"

"Is here, yes. Ran into him already. He brought human shields, too. Kale, Celia, Natalie, Lucas, Thom…"

"Celia?" Cheng asked incredulously, "There's two of her here too?" Dianne ignored him.

"Alice, Alice…" She muttered to herself before a burst of recognition flashed across her expression "Wait, _Alice_? Vector, what's she doing there?"

"I came with your mother," Alice said as she leaned in to enter the small picture.

"Wow, _none_ of us age well," Mahad commented to the other rebels as he took in the redhead's admittedly fizzed image. Between the distorting lines he could see that her red hair was now longer and shaggier and her face was weathered, hardened and had a slightly worn look that accompanied the combination of age and stress.

"My mother?" Dianne repeated in elated disbelief "She's—she's alive? She got out?!"

"Yes,"

"How? Never mind, doesn't matter. I _knew_ he couldn't keep hold of her! I knew it! There's no way he could break her, he couldn't do it with a double solar configuration on his side there's no way he could break her now!" Her face fell at a disturbing train of thought and she visibly paled, her tone suddenly frightened and urgent, "Is she okay? What did he do to her? How is she? I _swear_ if he hurt her… Is she okay? How is she?"

"On her way," Alice replied. There was a long pause before she managed to make her mouth work

"…What?" she asked, her polite tone strained and her eyebrows raised in an expression that she fought to maintain in favor of one that would reflect her true conflicted and complex emotions.

"There's gonna be two moms now?" the younger Lena asked, her brow also furrowing slightly.

"You mean on her way up to _talk_, right? Like, on the radio? Because she's…resting?" Dianne asked with apprehension, her face slowly falling. Her heart pounded in her chest and migrated down to the vicinity of her stomach. She had resigned herself to never seeing her mother—at least, her mother as _she_ knew her—again. In a manner of speaking she had been banking on it. She wanted so terribly, so deeply, to see her on the one hand but knew that if her mother showed up she was done for. If nothing else Dianne knew that she was going to be a heap of trouble.

"She went back right behind Oslo before the rift he created closed. We just made contact with her. Apparently she landed on Oxford and is on her way to Puerto Angel now," Alice replied

"But-but how c-could you let her do that? She's been in Oslo's clutches for months! Who knows what he did to her! She needs rest! Medical care! She can't just…you can't be serious!" Dianne spluttered with genuine indignation mingled with the irritation that her carefully laid plan was about to unravel rapidly. Just then Cortez's radio started to beep. The captain picked it up and pressed the button

"Aye?" he said

"_Captain," _Dahlia's voice sounded _"There's a ship coming in to land and its coming in fast. We don't recognize the make. Should we shoot it down?"_

"NO!" Dianne cried, dropping her own radio as she made a grab for the Captain's, "No! Don't! Don't you dare!"

With that she bolted out the door with the rebels close on her heels. Cortez shook his head with a slight growl and nodded almost wearily as he stalked after her with the Farrells behind him. The teenager wasn't going anywhere and perhaps Mila—or another Mila—would be able to talk some sense into her or at the very least explain the girl's behavior. Just as they headed out the Captain registered some sort of mechanical alarm going off but dismissed it as Mila—their Mila—closed the door behind them.

The Vector, in the meantime, went to go and check his machine. Unknown to the others, he had run a second DNA test with his secondary computer, something he had largely done manually just in case and something that he had not enlightened anyone else about. The alarm was the results finally coming in. he tapped in his security code to open the computer and accessed the file. The results made him squint at the screen, first convinced that he hadn't read it correctly before he frowned in suspicion and then reached for his radio. He was just about to contact the friends who had just walked out when he paused and straightened. A frown of thought crossed his face as a few things that the time traveler had said—and not said—came to mind. The old man bent over his computer again and tapped in a few more keys. The DNA had been sequenced already and compared, a secondary quick comparison to one other crew member.

The ship had landed at the bottom of the hill leading to the Lighthouse about halfway between the building and the town. It had been a good landing too; they caught the touch down as the small little ship eased down on the grass with expertise. Dahlia was standing several meters away with a radio in one hand and her blaster in the other, but lowered as Dianne ran up to stand beside her. The time traveler glanced at Dahlia with what the blonde could only describe as apprehension before looking back at the ship, seeming torn. The rebel archer frowned slightly and then glanced over her shoulder to see her captain and crewmates following the seijinn at a distance.

A hissing sound prompted Dahlia to look around at the emerging pilot. Time felt like it slowed down for her and her friends. Her radio fell to the ground when her fingers slackened in shock as shaggy, shoulder-length blonde hair peaked over the top of the ship as its dusty, rag-clad pilot hopped down to the ground, her knees buckling slightly on impact.

"What the…?" Dahlia muttered in confusion

"Mom," Dianne said in a voice that quavered slightly and strained with emotion.

"_MOM_?!" Dahlia shriekedand recoiled slightly in full-blown shock as the teenager rushed to throw her arms around the second time traveler just as the other woman turned around. The force of her embrace caused the woman to stumble slightly to regain her balance but she didn't seem to mind. The time traveler's mother held her close with a visible sigh of relief as she clasped the girl to her.

"Oh Lena…" she sighed, closing her eyes and lightly kissing the side of her daughter's head and tightening her grip on the teenager, a motion which was heartily returned by the teenager as the girl's shoulders started.

"I thought I'd never see you again…I thought he'd…I thought…" the Time Traveler named Lena whimpered between shaking breaths. Her mother sighed again and stroked her hair.

"I know, I know" she said, her tone comforting but also a little stern, opening her brown eyes and seeing the flabbergasted expressions of the rebels who seemed rooted to the spot. She thought she had been prepared to see them so young but it was still jarring. Her mouth set in a grim line and reluctantly pulled back from her daughter slightly and pointed an admonishing finger at the teenager. "But you are in so much trouble young lady!"

Everyone stared in shock, their jaws open. Dahlia's eyes were almost popping out of her head, her face frozen in an expression of mingled shock and horror. Cortez recovered quickly. Something suddenly made a great deal of sense to him and he realized why the teenager had been so adamant that they did not "need" to run a DNA test on her; she'd known her story wouldn't hold up.

She might be a Farrell, but she wasn't the Lena whom they all knew.

The second Time Traveler wasn't Mila.

It was Dahlia.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Well? Thoughts? Reviews are what authors crave...<strong>

**Believe it or not that twist was planned from the beginning. I was very careful and vague about my hints, but it was something that the story was written with in mind. A few things might make some more sense now if you were to reread the story ;)**

**Also If anyone was wondering what happened to Julian, I haven't forgotten about him. The scene wasn't ready yet and the chapter was already very long so I cut it. It will show up as a flash back in a little while. **

_Coming up Next Chapter:_

_Dahlia does some damage control; we find out each rebel's fate in the Future timeline. Time Travelling Dahlia fights with her daughter and sheds some light on her childhood and their continuing battles with Oslo._


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I do not own it…yet. Muahahahaha. Seriously, though. It's not mine. Not even a little bit of it. 'Aint it sad?**

**A/N: Please review :)**

**Chapter 18**

"Wait…_what_?" Cheng said in confusion as the two Dahlia's filed inside.

His confusion was shared by everyone in the lighthouse, who had been convinced that they had misunderstood or misheard what had been said over the radio. Jaws were practically scraping the floor. The new comer stopped just in the door and stared at the assembled rebel crew. In spite of herself she was taken aback. She felt like she was looking at ghosts and in a sense she was. For nearly a full minute no one said anything, though eventually everyone managed to tear their gaze away from the shocking newcomer to the dark haired teenaged girl. She drew into herself slightly like a child that had been caught doing something naughty. She made a face that was half-wince, half-smile, again like a placating naughty child.

"I lied?" the young woman said with a shrug in a repeat of the mannerism when she had been caught in her deception initially. This statement made her mother look around at her and scowl, reminded of her quarrel with her daughter's actions. The teenager let out a nervous little laugh and then sighed and grumbled something unintelligible. Her mother, however, seemed to be able to decipher it perfectly.

"That's right, we _will_ be talking about this later!" she snapped at 'her Lena' angrily. The teenager crossed her arms over her chest and looked up at her mother through the loose strands of dark hair that fell in front of her face. She turned her head away resentfully.

"Fine," she grumbled. "Figures you couldn't take five minutes before jumping back into the job,"

The older Dahlia gave her wayward daughter a look laden with a complex array of emotions. She signed wearily and uncrossed her arms

"Lena," she started.

"Go ahead. Do your damage control," the girl they had been referring to as 'Dianne' until this point told her. The teenager leaned back against the wall with her arms still firmly crossed and started to scuff her shoe on floor, staring determinedly at the wood beneath her boots. Her mother continued looking at her for a long moment before she finally shook her head in defeat.

"Fine," she said with a sigh. She moved to one of the chairs across from the sofa and sank into it, dropping the bag she had brought with her fall to the ground next to her. She slouched in the chair like Cortez would sometimes do on the Saint Nazaire when he was particularly tired and stressed. She leaned her forehead into one hand and sighed again before looking up at them with a weary gaze.

"Alright, what did she tell you? The stuff to all of you first and then individually—yes, Lena, I do know you, I am your mother after all," she said, her eyes darting towards the teenager when her daughter's head snapped up. She quickly returned her attention to the rebels.

It took a few hesitant moments before they started to recount the whole story to her, talking in turns. She nodded once in a while and occasionally glanced over at her daughter who still stood with her rear to the wall and her dark hair swinging in front of her face. She said nothing and listened intently as the rebels continued their awkward, stilted story. Most of them were still having difficulty processing the most recent turn of events and had trouble doing much more than stare at her in disbelief, particularly the twenty-something Dahlia for reasons which were understandable. At some point during this discussion Alice slipped through the door with muttered apologies. When they were finally finished the elder Dahlia nodded.

"Okay then," she said, her brown eyes flicking to her daughter as the teenager exited the room discreetly. She returned her attention to the somewhat confused rebels around her. "She told you a few half-truths and a lot of lies. Let's start with questions. Shoot,"

"So…you're _not_ me?" Lena said slowly, looking at the teenager who had made that claim with a frown of confusion.

"It's debatable," Dianne grumbled.

"_No_, she's not," The older Dahlia said firmly.

"So…Dianne—I mean your Lena, is your daughter? Yours and…Mahad's?"

"Yes. Lena Dianne Farrell,"

"I didn't really lie," The teen time traveler grumbled. FutureDahlia set her mouth in a grim line

"No," She admitted, watching the teenager carefully out of the corner of her eye. "No, she didn't. Her middle name isn't widely known. For a long time she used it more often than her real name and she responds to it as automatically as Lena, so…" FutureDahlia shrugged simply

"Aye, it makes sense," Cortez remarked with a nod. The time-traveler turned her head towards him at this and found herself staring. She was in a room of ghosts. It was more than a little disconcerting; some, like Mila, were exactly as she remembered but others held a slightly different image in her memory from the ages they were here, more than twenty years in her past. Looking across from her at the other Dahlia was especially unnerving with her sitting next to a Mahad that was so young…She had almost forgotten just how blue his eyes had been. She could stare at them for a long time, indeed. Luckily for them, that awkward situation was averted by the simple fact that it was not a luxury she could afford. With another sigh she leaned forward and rested one elbow on her knee as her other hand came up to her forehead.

"I know that Oslo is here, I don't know if you—"

"Aye, we ran into him already,"

"Alright,"

"We also have a rather battered ex-gladiator in the infirmary," Wayan told her. This statement prompted a start from the older blonde and she jerked into a straighter posture

"Kale? You have Kale? He's alive?" she asked, a mingling of urgency, hope and disbelief in her voice.

"Aye, alive. But…battered,"

"What does that mean?" FutureDahlia queried anxiously.

"He has a broken back and there's something wrong with his head…he had this mask on,"

"He was a Zombie, yes," the time traveler said "They got him three years ago. If he's still alive he's got to be one of the longest surviving victims to undergo the procedure. What did you do? You didn't—"

"I…ahem…I might have pulled off that mask thingy…" Mahad admitted awkwardly with a guilty clearing of his throat. The time traveler found her gaze locked on this younger version of her spouse as she processed this. She eventually nodded numbly. It sounded like something Mahad— at the very least _this_ Mahad—would do.

"I see. What's his condition now?"

"His vitals are stable, but he is unresponsive. His brain activity is minimal," The Vector told her. Again the time traveler nodded and leaned forward, balancing her elbows on her knees and loosely interlacing her fingers. There was a pause during which no one said anything.

"Tell them about the rest," Dianne said from the doorway. "They might as well know how bad it gets,"

"How bad can bad be?" Mahad asked, instantly regretting the question the moment it left his mouth. The teenager cocked an eyebrow at him and straightened, uncrossing her arms and pointing her index finger around the room at Cheng, Cortez, Wayan, Mila and Mahad in quick succession

"Sphere Turncoat. Dead. MIA, assumed dead, last reported sighting in a labor camp. Dead. MIA, assumed dead," She snorted when she got to the younger seijinn "You, _very_ dead, and you," she paused at the younger Dahlia before looking at her mother, her eyes starting to mist with angry tears "End up stuck trying to keep your psycho kid from killing anyone until Oslo captures you and holds you prisoner for over a year…"

The teenaged Seijinn cut herself off and looked away sharply before turning on her heel and stalking off up to her loft room. FutureDahlia made to get up and then sat back down with an expression of weary, worried defeat on her face. She closed her eyes where the others flinched at the slamming of the trap door. She sighed.

"No doubt you want to know how things get that bad," she said, interlacing her fingers loosely again.

There was a brief moment of silence as the rebels exchanged looks and uncomfortable shrugs.

"Aye," Cortez answered for all of them.

"Where to begin?" She asked rhetorically. She paused a moment as she organized her thoughts and considered where exactly to start her tale.

"The Rebellion…It's in a good place right now," she began "And even with Oslo still out there we gain a lot of ground. For a while we even manage to topple the Sphere altogether,"

"For a while?" Wayan asked.

"Yes. But we don't do it _right_. It's…complicated. I don't think we have time for it all. Not all right now, anyway,"

"Perhaps not," Mila remarked, struggling to maintain a neutral expression on her face. It wasn't needed. This time traveler understood all too well. The look in her eyes of such deep-seated grief terrified the seijinn but she didn't voice this as the elder Dahlia continued.

"But that's not what you want to hear. There's no easy way to say this…but in my time half of you are dead, or presumed dead. I haven't seen most of you in a _very_ long time,"

There was a long pause as a knot of dread settled in their stomachs. It was Mahad, oddly enough who broke the silence.

"How?" he asked grimly, with more maturity than most in the room were accustomed to expecting from him. He glanced down at the tarnished gold band around the fourth finger of their newest guest's left hand and then met her sad brown eyes. "When? Who does it start with?"

FutureDahlia continued to meet his gaze unflinchingly.

"Are you sure you wanna know? It's not easy listening, my past,"

There was another pause as they considered this. There was an unsaid but nevertheless understood implication that there was something ominous about hearing such an accurate fortune telling. There'd be no unhearing it afterwards. It was the twenty-something Dahlia who finally voiced what they were hesitant to.

"We want to know," she said. Her counterpart nodded and cleared her throat.

"Um, Lena, why don't you go find Kale? He'll probably want to hear about this stuff too," she asked innocuously. Her subtlety wasn't quite enough. The girl stiffened, her eyes widening ever so slightly with alarm.

"I'm staying here," she said firmly. FutureDahlia's shoulders slumped slightly in defeat and shrugged.

"Fair enough," she conceded. "It's—well it's complicated. Hard to say where to begin…"

"I…I'm the first to go, aren't I?" Lena asked, as though dazed by the realization. The time traveler met her gaze and then Mila's before nodding.

"Yes," FutureDahlia admitted quietly. Mila reached out and yanked her daughter to her, practically clutching the girl in a fierce protective reflex.

"When?" Mila demanded sharply, her eyes wide and horrified.

"It's 2252, right? That would make it about four years from now. It…it's a long story that involves Oslo and the Origin and…things going about as wrong as they could go," the time traveler stated woodenly. She struggled against a flashback in vain and a distant look crossed her face. For several moments she didn't speak and only Alice was able to pick up on the flashback which leaked through her impressive mental barriers.

*_Flashback*_

_ "What in Skyland…" she breathed as she and Lena skidded to a halt at the edge of a stone-carved platform. The force of their slide sent several pebbles and clouts of dust spinning off the edge of the block. Both young women threw out their arms to the side slightly to steady themselves even as they looked up in horror at the scene in front of them. The Origin floated, as it usually did, in mid-air. What was unusual, however, was the device several meters in front of it that shot some kind of beam at it. It was clearly having some kind of affect; the stone throne was trembling and emitting spurts of mixed blue and black flame, the different tongues of fire seeming to be battling for dominance. As the Origin shook it started to send out small ripples of energy which acted like wind, forcing Dahlia to squint at the dust and whipping both young women's hair around their face. _

_ "What do they think they're doing?!" Lena yelled furiously over the wind. Dahlia looked over at her whilst bringing a hand up to shield her eyes. At sixteen Lena had overtaken the blonde by about half an inch in height and had a slender, willowy build. She had grown out her hair to her shoulders and had taken to wearing it up in a simple but elegant updo, even though the wind and terrain had pulled loose two characteristic strands which whipped around her face. The seijinn's icy blue eyes were wide with indignation and white-hot rage. _

_"I think they're trying to access its power or something!" Dahlia replied in a shout, the wind forcing her to take a step back. _

_"That's ridiculous!" Lena interrupted as she whipped around to glare at her "I'm the only one who can do that! I'm the Lady of Light!"_

_"__That won't stop them from trying!" Dahlia retorted, "Think about it! Oslo's always looking for power and those trigger-happy paranoids would just love to destroy the origin of Seijin power!" _

_The seijin looked dumbfounded at that but quickly saw the logic and looked back at the machines beneath it with unveiled disgust. She ground her teeth and turned back to face the scene before them. _

_"They can **try**! I'm going in!" She snarled viciously. Dahlia saw the ripples of light appear on her forearm and shine beneath her three-quarter sleeve and grabbed her arm just as the teenager started to crouch. _

_"Lena, wait! Are you nuts?" She shouted over the increasing noise. "Don't you remember what Cheng said? That thing is building up enough power for an explosion about triple that of Hiroshima!"_

_The seijinn yanked her arm out of the older woman's grasp._

_"__I can handle it!" she snapped, transitioning into her full Lady-of Light form, levitating into the air and away from her friend as she 'grew. Her "voice"—spoken directly into Dahlia's mind— took on its ethereal, oddly distant quality, as though she were speaking into a glass. _

**_'You still do not understand, Dahlia,' _**_The Lady of Light said, her tone much calmer than Lena's human form had been as she slowly revolved back around towards the archer in mid-air. Over the years the Lady of Light had changed little apart from additional detail that had slowly made its way into her features as Lena matured and grew into her destiny. **I am the Lady of Light. The Origin is as much a part of me as my human body. A threat to it is a threat to me and a threat to me is a threat to you. I will not stand for it,'**_

_With that the luminescent figure turned back around and flew through the air at a deceptively quick speed, ignoring Dahlia's calls after it. With a decisive wave of her arm she pulled debris and active ships alike into the beam which threatened and divided the origin from its wielder. She settled into her throne with a graceful sweep. For a brief moment it seemed as though the arrival of the veritable goddess on the scene had settled the matter; the beam ceased and the air was filled with the thick sounds of machinery whirring on standby and the eerie sounds of seijinn energy. Dahlia frowned in suspicion and pulled back the string of her energy bow incrementally as she tensed. Something was not right…_

_Without warning the machine suddenly fired pair of beams simultaneously at the Origin and its occupant. The Lady of Light gasped and arched her back in apparent pain, spasms shaking her form and prompting blinding flashes of light to emanate from her body in time to them. _

_"LENA!" Dahlia screamed as the winds picked up in response to the seijinn's distress. Her reflexes prompted her to loose her energy arrow at a piece of debris heading straight for her head, redirecting the rock before it could strike her. The winds—psychically fueled by the Lady of Light's distress—literally threw the blonde off her feet and tossed her into the air. She lost her grip on her bow but managed to grab a pillar, struggling to hold on in the face of the twister that was rapidly forming. With a gasp she slipped a few inches before grinding her teeth with a growl and somehow managing to push her body forward enough to readjust her grip on the column. She wrapped both legs around it and dug the fingers of one hand into a crack until the knuckles were white whilst she fumbled for her radio with the other. _

_"Dahlia to Mahad!" She yelled, ducking her head with another small cry as the sand from a disintegrated patroller. When she looked back around she could vaguely make out what she was certain was Oslo's figure as he tried to redirect the beam. He failed almost immediately when a surge of power from one of the Lady's convulsions bodily threw him past where Dahlia could see. She brought her radio back to her mouth. _

_"Dahlia to Mahad—Cortez, Wanda—Wayan, anyone!" she yelled desperately. "We need help now! That thing's—"_

_She never finished her sentence. At that moment there was a blinding, searing flash, a thunderous boom and Dahlia's world went black..._

FutureDahlia recounted none of the vivid detail etched into her memory from that day. She and Alice remained the only people who knew everything that the Lady of Light had said and did that day. Alice was impressed; she hadn't known a non-seijinn could shield their mind as effectively as the woman before her had learned to.

"Things go wrong. Very wrong," FutureDahlia reiterated. "I was—will be—_was_ with her. There's an…I guess you could call it an explosion? with your Lena and the Origin at its center. We still don't really know what happened. The Vector theorized that it had something to do with a power surge looping back on them—I don't know and neither does anyone else, really. We just know the damage it did. The Saint Nazaire was nearly crippled, we lost mosquitoes, the nearby block was decimated, the whole area flooded with some kind of bizarre radiation…it wasn't pretty. We—um—we never found much of a body,"

"But…" Mila began desperately "But that means that you might be wrong. How do you know that she didn't escape somehow? If you never found—"

"There was no mistake, Mila. I wish there had been. Skyland you have no idea how much I wish there had been. There was nothing left. She was at the apex of the blast. No one could figure out how I wasn't disintegrated along with half the surrounding matter. I was injured, though. It's how I got these," The time traveler pulled back the collar of her shirt to expose part of her back, revealing an angry burn scar before pulling back strands of hair to show them the long white line that ran just along her hairline from temple to ear on her left side. She readjusted her shirt collar and continued.

"The block became a debris field. Wanda was the one who found me and then only because she stayed awake for thirty-six hours sifting through the field with her senses during the day and going with Mahad or Wayan after sunset. I was unconscious for more than a week after they found me, too,"

"It must have been quite the ordeal," The Vector remarked. "It's astounding that you escaped simply with surface scarring—unless,"

"Physically there was scarring, burns and some bruised bones from the debris," FutureDahlia assured him in a dry voice implying that her scars ran deeper than the skin. "For a long time we suspected there might be more internal damage but I'd been told that time would tell. We were almost convinced that there would be; whenever I was scanned the results always came back showing massive amounts of radiation. A few months later I was worried that my miraculous resilience wasn't that miraculous; That the radiation might have affected me after all. I couldn't keep food down. I was having dizzy spells. I had no energy. I was having headaches. My month-cycle had shut down. I was convinced that my hair would be next, that I was having a delayed reaction to it and might even require surgery. I started to worry that even if the Vector could cure me I'd never have the option of something like having kids.

"However, an examination by the Vector proved me wrong. Didn't think there was much that could surprise me at that point but he proved me wrong on that too. Not only was I not sick and not barren, I was pregnant,"

She allowed them a few moments for that to sink in. Surely enough, as she suspected would happen, it was the Vector who spoke first with a perplexed frown.

"But…surely you're not saying…"

"No," FutureDahlia cut him off firmly, knowing exactly where that question was going. "Trust me, no. Mahad and I were already together by that point, yes he grows up just enough to be tolerable. We were…_together_ the night before the explosion _and_ at Lena's funeral a few weeks later I was recovered enough to physically to not be incapacitated. We got a little drunk and both of us needed comfort and one thing led to another and...well. My daughter was _not_ immaculately conceived. Trust me,"

Both the present day Dahlia and Mahad turned a rather amusing shade of red and scooted away from one another in embarrassment. The others watched with mild amusement, though the gravity of the situation prevented them from enjoying their reaction as much as they'd like. The corner of FutureDahlia's lip twitched in something that came close to a smile before it fell into its grave expression again.

"That didn't stop people from fixating on the possibility, though. We tried to keep her quiet, keep Oslo from finding out. It wasn't easy. My pregnancy was weird, that's the only word I have to describe it. By my third trimester I was pretty much telepathic. There was this constant muttering in the back of my head, but there were usually too many voices for me to be able to pick out what they were saying except on occasion. I thought I was going crazy until Wanda and Mila helped me improve my mental shields. Dahlia, you've already started by now, of course, ever since the Perihelia, but we're forced to up our game out of sheer self-defense. There were a lot of other things that happened too, but that was the biggest symptom. I knew my baby was going to be a seijinn and a powerful one. I'd never heard of non-seijinn mothers reacting like that before, but I just knew that was what it was,"

"You must have the potential for it," Alice remarked. FutureDahlia nodded.

"Both Mahad and I do. Even in my time they're still trying to figure out the genetics for seijinn power but long story short, Mahad and I both have the genes. They're just—I guess you could say they're dormant in us. At least that's the way it was described to me. We're more attuned to telepathy, we make good conduits but we don't have any powers ourselves. We still burn in the sun, we have normal metabolisms and we don't have any of the markers in our blood. But we carry the genes. And our daughter got a full double dose of the trait. Great _Skyland_ does she have powers…

"They started manifesting pretty much at birth. She was a difficult secret for the rebellion to keep. Especially when almost everyone was obsessed with the idea that she was somehow her aunt: that she'd been reborn. It was never enough for her to just be her. To just be a smart, beautiful, powerful, gifted girl on her own merit. She just had to be the Lady of Light,"

"But…but she doesn't look, I mean to say, when Squirt over here got angry a little while ago, she turned into something that kind of looks like her. When Dianne lost it…" Mahad started

"She turned into a Phoenix. Not just a bird, a phoenix. Yes. What you're talking about didn't start happening until she reached her teens but it also didn't help. If anything it just made some people believe harder," FutureDahlia said whilst massaging one temple as though trying to dispel and old, irritating headache.

"Why?" Cheng asked.

"Because even when you were young some people called you 'Little Phoenix," Future Dahlia said directly to Lena "And in mythology a phoenix—"

"Is reborn from its own ashes, of course!" The Vector exclaimed.

"Exactly," FutureDahlia agreed with another sigh. "She's had a hard life, my little girl. So often isolated, nowhere near enough company her own age, surrounded by people talking to her as though she were somehow her own aunt, always on the run, and with the largest bounty on her in the history of skyland. And her powers…controlling them has never been easy for her. They're explosive,"

"But when our Lena was a child—" Mila began

"Hard as it may be to believe, she isn't as powerful," FutureDahlia interrupted.

"What?" Lena asked quietly.

"Not your own anyway. There was one thing that I will admit was and is weird," The time traveler continued "My daughter's seijinn fingerprint is almost identical to the energy signature you give off when you're linked to the Origin. Her powers are constantly at the highest peak of seijinn energy since the womb. The radiation on my scans? It was the origin. What we think happened is that when the Origin was destroyed the seijinn energy latched on to the closest living thing it could to preserve itself. I have seijinn potential so it latched onto me. But my _daughter_ was a seijinn, her genes were very much active. She probably would have been as powerful as her dad's sister anyway or at the very least as powerful as Wanda without it but it synched with her the same way it synchs its powers to Lena's. She's lived with powers heightened tenfold her entire life,"

"But no one could absorb that kind of energy on a permanent basis! Not that young!" Mila exclaimed.

"Not without side affects," FutureDahlia said grimly "And there _have_ been side effects. She's never been sick but she's always got a fever. Her temperature has gotten dangerously high a few times. She starves more quickly, and when she gets to a certain point her powers tart to affect her biology. Her body is constantly at war with itself like her mind is. And that's just a few purely physical symptoms. Vector, do you remember during the Perihelia, when you thought that Lena had given herself a split personality because of the solar surge?"

"Yes, but I was mistaken," The Vector said.

"Then, yes. But your theory had merit. When my daughter was little she had an imaginary friend. We didn't think anything of it at first. She was a kid and didn't have much company her own age. It wasn't until this 'friend' started to 'do things' and 'know things' that we started to realize we were looking at more than just a child's imagination. The Origin wants its host alive. It was never anything more than energy before your Lena assumed her role of the Lady of light and even then I don't know what's going on with it. But with my daughter…"

The time traveller trailed off, getting briefly lost in her own memories and thoughts. The rebels waited tensely for her to elaborate. After nearly a full minute she looked up at a point past Cortez's shoulder. The rebels turned to see that Dianne was hanging quietly from the ladder leading up to the loft. How long she had been there silently they weren't sure, none of them had heard her come back down. She had her knees pulled up to her chest while perched on one of the rungs, skewing the ladder towards her with her weight while she had her arms wound around the side, pulling herself in towards it . She reminded Lena of an illustration in one of her old-earth children's novels of someone hanging from a jungle vine. The teenager was looking straight at her mother when she broke the silence in the air.

"With _her_ daughter the Origin's energy source is the one in control half the time," she informed them. "It's violent, it's arrogant, it's vindictive, it's murderous and it's a little scary to think that it's also me. It's a big reason why I don't get out much or have any friends left to get themselves caught and hurt for me and quite frankly its a pretty damn good reason,"

With that she vanished back up into the roof again. FutureDahlia closed her eyes and seemed to deflate again.

"Is...she okay?" Mahad asked hesitantly. He was well aware of the answer but there was little else that he could think of to say.

"No," the time traveler said simply. "She isn't. She hasn't been for a long time. She's not had it easy, even by our standards. We managed to keep Oslo from finding out about her until she was about-what was it? Three? Yes, she wasn't quite four yet. She's been the top name on the Sphere's Most Wanted list ever since. She's spent her entire life on the run. You have to understand that in my time they have devices that detect seijinn signatures in all the Sphere controlled zones. The Seijinn scanners are the first things they install when they take over. We had problems with leaks, we had to move her constantly. She's only ever lived in temporary homes, on a warship or off the grid in near-isolation. Never enough company her own age in my opinion and surrounded by people who weren't willing to accept her as a unique individual,"

"What d'you mean?" Wayan asked with a slight frown. The time traveler rubbed her neck and shook her head at the very memory.

"It's…let's start with this; I never wanted to name her Lena. Ever. Not even a middle name. There were…coincidences,"

"And that means…?" Cortez asked leadingly.

"It means that Lena—your Lena—became even more than a symbol. When we lost, well, you, Lena, a lot of people were devastated. It destroyed Mila and came close to destroying Mahad, too. My Lena was born within days of her aunt's birthday. There were complications during my labor and for the second time in a year they didn't know if I would make it. When I woke up they'd already named her exactly what I didn't want to name my daughter. I knew how much everyone wanted her back. I did, too, but not by replacing her with my daughter. It didn't seem to matter what I said or did, though. Her father nicknamed her Squirt, the Ningxia group would call her nothing but the 'Little Phoenix' before her Zenith form was even hinting at manifesting…I gotta say, I loved Kale for calling her 'Lenny'. It was her nickname and it caught on with some of the crew for a while,"

"Either way, when she got older she stopped seeing Phoenix as a friend and started to see her as something she needed to fight. Something she needed to purge. Phoenix didn't take that well as you can imagine. The fights inside her head are intense and they are escalating. Both of them grow in strength every year and every year the two halves of her draw the battle lines more deeply,"

"Is there a way to separate the Origin from your daughter?" The Vector inquired. FutureDahlia frowned and closed her eyes briefly in weary frustration. She shook her head and swept out her hands in a stopping motion.

"No, you still don't _understand_!" she groaned in exasperation "It's part of her. It's always been part of her as much as having light eyes is part of her or being a seijinn at all is a part of her. There's no going around it!"

It was clear that this was an old argument that she had been fighting with various people for years. She slouched slightly with exhaustion and continued at a quieter volume but with a similar amount of emphasis.

"There's no getting rid of it. There's just learning how to use it. And if she doesn't she might just get herself and others killed,"

87878787878787

"Time for our reunion fight?" Lena drawled sarcastically whilst her mother climbed into the room from the floor with her legs still partially dangling through the opening. She sighed and swung her legs around onto the floor before coming into a crouch and pulling up the door.

"I don't want to fight, Lena—" she started as she got to her feet, allowing the bag slung over her shoulder to drop to the floor with a thud.

"Neither do I but it's what we do, isn't it?" her daughter replied shortly.

"Mothers and daughters always—"

"Not like us," Lena snapped.

"Maybe not. No," Dahlia admitted, her hands going to her hips as she took stock of the room, her gaze settling on her daughter last. The teenager stood resolutely facing the small, circular window with her feet a shoulder width apart in a sturdy, almost combative stance and her arms crossed over her chest. Dahlia didn't need to be able to see her face to know the frown that was etched into her features. This wasn't how she had hoped their reunion would go, but then things rarely went the way she wanted these days, particularly when it came to her daughter. She moved her hands from her hips and crossed her arms over her chest in a mannerism that was nearly identical to her progeny's current posture. "But most teenagers are not like you," she said.

Lena snorted.

"_There's_ an understatement," she drawled.

"You're not kidding," Her mother retorted, her tone making it clear that she was at the end of her temper.

"Here it comes," Lena groaned

"Don't give me that young lady! Do you have any idea how much you scared me? How much you're still scaring me?"

"How much I scare _you_?" the teenager exclaimed indignantly as she whipped around and uncrossed her arms to swing to her sides. "Please! You're the only person in Skyland who isn't scared of me and doesn't need to be!"

"That is not what I meant and you know it! I am your mother! Just you wait until we get home—" Dahlia fumed as she strode towards the young seijinn.

"We are home! At least at _your_ home. Grab a seat. Enjoy the sunshine and the good old days of old," Lena retorted snarkily as she walked around her mother towards the closet, snatching up the coat she had tossed onto the bed and moving to put it away to avoid any bickering about that.

"You know what I mean," Dahlia said through clenched teeth. Her expression softened from anger to a look of concern when Lena winced in discomfort and leaned against the door of the small closet with her forehead pressed to the wood and her eyes shut tightly against the sudden stabbing pains through her temple. Her mother strode purposefully over to her and put one hand on the back of her neck and the other on her forehead, gently pulling her away from the wood and over to the cot.

"You're burning up again," the blonde muttered as she sat her daughter down and went over to her bag.

"What else is new?" Lena moaned, digging the heels of her hands into her eyes in a vain attempt at some kind of relief. Her mother continued watching her worriedly as she rummaged through her bag until she found what she was looking for, stepping back to her daughter just as the teenager let loose a frustrated sob "_Dammit_! I hate this new excelerium formula…and everything _else_. Ughhh,"

"Here," Dahlia sighed as she pressed her thumbs down on the small disk in the center of the rectangular gel back she was holding. The effect was instantaneous; the moment that the small silver circle was cracked the reaction spread across the long rectangle as the gel cooled and hardened until it was as cold as ice. With the practiced efficiency that she had developed over the years she pressed the frozen compress to the back of her daughter's neck. The teenager brought a hand back to secure it there, prompting Dahlia to release it and slide her hand out from under her daughter's. She still leaned against the wardrobe with one hand but nodded in gratitude before opening her eyes slightly in a pained squint.

"You packed this stuff?"

" 'Course I did. You forgot them, as usual. Lena you have to keep your temperature down, you _know_ this," Dahlia scolded wearily

"I _was_ in a bit of a hurry. Vector hasn't invented this stuff yet, what am I supposed to do?"

"Not _this_!" Dahlia snapped. "I expressly forbade you and him from ever using that device,"

"You weren't exactly there to consult," Lena retorted in a mumble. "And it was an emergency,"

"I'm sure there was another way out,"

"Not one that I liked!" Lena snapped, straightening and pushing past Dahlia again. "Don't know why you're making such a big deal about this. It's not like it's that different from the stuff that you and Dad and Aunt Lena did when you were my age,"

"Not that different?" Dahlia repeated incredulously "Not that different?! You went _back in time_ Lena! That's not even supposed to be possible, let alone some kind of every-day occurrence!"

"And it's perfectly common place for someone to turn a fleet of ships to dust when she gets angry? Face it mom, _what part of our lives has ever been normal_?" the girl demanded, throwing her free arm out in exasperation before pointing to herself. "Since when have _I_ ever been even close to normal? You know, most kids just cry and throw things when their lives fall apart, but me? I go postal, turn into that _thing_ and _destroy entire blocks_! I don't just kill people I _incinerate_ them! Most kids don't have Sphere agents come and flirt with them in order to destroy their friends. Most kids don't need to hide out in a library so they can have a ghost keep their powers in check! Most kids—"

Her mother grabbed her by her shoulders and made her daughter look her in the eye, blue-grey meeting brown

"Most kids write bad, emotional poetry when they're depressed, not try to erase their existence!" she yelled, giving the girl's shoulders a shake "Just what did you think you were going to accomplish? What were you thinking _period_? Who exactly did you think would benefit from taking yourself out of the equation?"

"EVERYONE!" the teenager screamed in her face as she yanked out of her mother's grip. The cold pack fell to the floor with a thud. A wordless scream of frustration and discomfort tore from her lips as the heels of her hands went back up to her head. She whipped around and hunched over, not wanting to look her mother in the eye. Tears were streaming from her eyes and her sides were racked with sobs. Dahlia was too shocked to reply immediately— quite literally struck dumb—though that didn't stop her from moving to try and comfort the teenager. Lena once again batted her away and stumbled back a step, still bent over slightly as she started to rant.

"I'm a curse! I'm—I'm poison! The rebellion went to shit when I came along! The Sphere got power back, Oslo took it over completely—"

"That had nothing to do with you! Lena you were four!" Dahlia said as she tried to get a hold of her again in order to bring her daughter out of the state she was working herself into.

"He starts hunting me and destroys any block we so much as stop off at—"

"That was him, not you!"

"Cause he'd have been interested in me if I couldn't _blow someone's head off?_ He takes each and every one of you one by one to get to me! Aunt Wanda died because of me. Uncle Wayan was shot because of me, he got sent to that prisoner camp because of _me_. Kale got turned into a Zombie because of _me_. Cortez died because of that creep that I was stupid enough to fall for! We got blackballed from half the blocs because _I am a_ _monster_! I lost half of the rebellion thanks to this thing inside my head! This thing that just keeps eating away and gaining ground every day…every day it gets stronger and stronger and wants to _burn_ and destroy…"

Lena curled in on herself and started to lower to the floor. Her mother was not to be pushed away this time. Dahlia seized her in her arms in a tight embrace and lowered them both down to the floor. The blonde held her daughter tightly and clenched her teeth against tears of her own as she held the hysterical young girl.

"Lena, Lena, listen to me! Lena, calm down, it's alright" She said firmly as she tried to bring her daughter back down from this state as the girl now clung to her desperately. _Skyland_, her skin was hot to the touch, her sweat was grey with black tint of the excelerium and Dahlia just _knew_ that her heart-rate was climbing.

"He got you. He hurt you, I know he did! He got you because you kept him from getting me!" Lena whimpered

"Lena, stop thinking about that. Just focus on my voice. You have to bring yourself back down. Come back, you can do it, it's alright, it's alright,"

"Why can't it stay quiet? It's never quiet. Why can't they ever stay quiet?" she asked suddenly. "I had a couple of days where it was so nice and…silent…just me in my head. But when _It's_ not there everyone else is!"

"I know, honey, I know," Dahlia murmured comfortingly, stroking the teenager's hair. Her daughter was now laid across her lap, her energy suddenly zapped. Lena took a long, shaky breath and shifted her head so that it rested on Dahlia's knee and continued to clutch at her mother's arm with her hands, glad for the physical anchor that she provided. For her part Dahlia simply continued to stroke her hair soothingly. The fit seemed to be passing and she started to calm both physically and emotionally. The pair of them remained that way for a good five minutes. After that long period of quiet she swallowed.

"Lena, I want you to listen to me for once in your life," she said very seriously. "First, you are _not_ a monster. _Oslo_ is the monster. I think most would agree that I'm the authority on the two of you at this point,"

Lena sniffled in response to that but didn't interrupt.

"Second, we all make our own choices. Cortez, your father, Kale, me. We made our choices. Would you have done any less for us if the positions had been reversed?"

"You didn't _let_ me," Lena mumbled miserably. Dahlia continued to stroke her hair soothingly.

"Family prerogative. You're the youngest. Grown ups' protect you. That's how it works, sweetheart," The blonde informed her with a slight, sad smile before her tone became firmer. "Now, thirdly, and you listen _very_ carefully here young lady. You are _my_ Lena, _my_ daughter. Much as I loved your Aunt, she's gone and has been gone for years. I don't care what's happened. I _will not_ trade you. What happened, happened. It's in the past, is that understood?"

There was a slight pause before Lena replied. When she did Dahlia could hear the slight smile on her face.

"Not in the past anymore,"

Dahlia's hand stilled briefly.

"At the moment, no. You're right," she agreed carefully before adding "But after you get your strength back we are contacting the Vector and we are going home,"

"What home, mum?" Lena mumbled tiredly as she started twitching in discomfort. In normal circumstances this statement would have kicked off another shouting match but the teenager didn't feel as though she had the strength and her mother was too concerned about her condition to engage in one either.

"The Vector got us here, the Vector will have to figure out how to send us back,"

"I don't think so," Lena said. Her voice was quiet but resolute and firm even against her shaking.

"It's not up for discussion,"

"No, it isn't. Even if we could go back, you really think they'll let us?" the teenager asked hoarsely. Dahlia froze. Lena curled in slightly towards her mother in an unconscious search for comfort against her physical discomfort. Her mother responded by tightening her grip slightly. The teenager sighed, her tone tired and almost a little defeated. "_You_ never lied to them and you just told Gran that her daughter will die if the timeline doesn't change. You might not want to trade, but she will. Think she'd pass up the chance to save her daughter? And dad, he always wanted her back. S'why he named me after her, isn't it? Our world is hell. They don't have to go through that. None of you do,"

There was a long pause as Dahlia tightened her hold on her daughter again in silent turmoil but she voiced nothing. Instead she started to get up and helped her teenager get onto the cot. Lena's head lolled slightly on the pillow and she continued to twitch slightly. Dahlia watched this and noted the grey tint to some of the prominent veins that usually shone blue when they stuck out. The blonde picked up the discarded cold pack and perched next to the teenager on the bed, brushing her dark hair gently off her forehead and nestled the gel package against her head.

"We'll talk about this later," Dahlia told her quietly. Lena shook her head slightly. There was a long and uncomfortable silence that hung between them.

"Your hair's even longer," the blonde remarked finally, gently stroking the dark strands back from her face.

"So's yours," Lena replied quietly as she turned slightly, her arms slowly uncrossing as she did so to hang loosely at her sides. Her mother saw the light reflecting off the gathering tears in her eyes and heard the strain in her voice as she continued "I thought they'd have…you know, cut it. I thought they'd…thought a lot of things. Thought—_knew_ that he'd do a lot of things,"

"I know,"

"I know," Dahlia told her. "Lena, it wasn't your fault. You have to understand that,"

"I know mom," the teenager mumbled unconvincingly. Her mother was not fooled but didn't push it.

"Just get some rest," the blonde told her. She stayed with her until the young woman fell into a somewhat fitful sleep and remained well after until eventually she, too, drifted off into an uneasy doze.


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I don't own Skyland. **

**A/N: And I'm back! Damn. 11 months went by...well okay, maybe not quickly, but hectically. Just a note to those still following this and glad to see an update again, you owe ASingleMind a 'thank you'; they were the one who PMed me a couple of times to remind me about this story that I had shamefully neglected, thanks 'Mind! Well, here is the next chapter! As usual, please drop me a review, I appreciate feedback!**

**Chapter 19**

Some of the Drones were not in good shape.

Cheng walked between the rows of slab-like cots they had been laid out on, their mesh-covered, staring eyes fixed blankly on the ceiling above their heads. The scientist had already been ordered to euthanize one of them. Like Kale, this young man had broken his back after falling to the block's hard ground. Unlike the former Gladiator, however, he had been retrieved by his fellow soldiers and brought back to High Commander Oslo. Care for his injuries had been deemed too costly to their limited resources. Cheng had done as he was told, though he didn't entirely disagree with his master; beneath the paralyzing control of his mask the young man would have been in agony. He would never have walked again and the severity of his internal injuries meant that he would likely have died anyway. Oslo had not specified how he was to be disposed of so Cheng had deliberately overdosed him on painkillers that would have let the poor soul fall into a painless and fatal doze.

Others had been more or less more fortunate. After surviving the Phoenix's rampage they had come out with various burns and scrapes and a few of them were bleeding internally but there had only been the one fatality so far. The uninjured drones were in their designated resting area. These were pods in which the drones rested and had their immediate physical needs attended to; sustenance delivered intravenously and the wastes removed in a similar manner. Their bodies were at complete rest and monitored to ensure that all of their muscles and physical conditioning were in top form; the muscles which scans indicated were showing signs of losing their impressive strength were stimulated and the appropriate nutritional supplements provided to further their conditioning.

The scientist wandered between the rows, silently pondering the journey he had taken to get from the little boy on Puerto angel who had first met Celia to where he stood now, staring down at her pod. Beneath the mask she was still cute. Always had been, really. She had only sustained minor wounds which, thanks to her seijinn abilities, were healing rapidly. Cheng sighed and gently rested his hand against the Plexiglas. It was rare for a seijinn to be made a drone. Their psychic abilities often gave them an edge over the process, but not after they had been drained. It had been Cheng's fault; he had disobeyed his master. Now Oslo had the power to simply terminate Celia's life with the flip of a switch if he wanted to. She was one of his favourite on-hand batteries. He couldn't completely recharge himself with her energy but he could top up his reserves. Doing so also served to keep her under control of the mask.

Cheng caught a glimpse of his distorted reflection in the rounded reflective surface of the metallic pod. The soft roundness had left his face when he hit puberty, leaving him with a distinct jaw line and a well-groomed, close-cut beard and mustache. He would never be as tall as Cortez or even as tall as Mahad, but he was no longer short. His build was still lean, though more from absent-mindedness in regards to food than any kind of commitment to his appearance; unlike his youth where there had been just enough to eat to keep him healthy and satisfied (most of the time), he now had plenty available to him. There were also plenty of clothes, numerous luxury goods— he could even have a bath with water once a week if he wanted to—and in a heated tub no less! He enjoyed a sense of subtle but expensive style though he had rarely made use of the last luxury: the dry showers were much quicker and allowed him to continue with his work more quickly.

The scientist wandered away from Celia and through the door that led to his office. He sat down in his chair and leaned his head into his clasped fingers. He heaved a sigh and pulled open the top drawer. Inside was a vial and syringe. It was one of the few vices he had acquired with his opulence. One that aided with his guilt instead of contributing to it. The high, metallic gong from his wrist alerted him to his master's summons. With another great sigh Cheng closed the drawer with a promise to his craving that he would satisfy it after Oslo was through with him. He couldn't afford to be addlebrained around his master, especially not with _two_ of them.

The two were (perhaps understandably) fascinated by each other. Cheng slipped in through the hissing automatic doors to see the pair of them lounging across the pristine white oval table in curved chairs. The Oslos mirrored each other's body language and expressions. They both drank from the elder's private supply of vintage wine in small crystal glasses dangling between their fingers whilst deeply engrossed in their conversation.

"…but would it not simply be better to capture the three of them, now? If you have her DNA on file we might be able to still isolate the genetic material from her parents depending on how advanced your science has progressed…" The bald man mused

"No, no, no, my friend, you still do not understand," Cheng's master said as he leaned forward to emphasize his point "Lena Farrell would likely have been as powerful as her aunt on her own, but the binding of the Origin to her as its host creates an entity of unprecedented power. Not even I could absorb the amount of energy that she generates daily. It is only because it has so securely bonded to her that her abilities have reached these heights without otherwise damaging her,"

"But from what you have told me she is highly unstable," Oslo said.

"That is not necessarily a disadvantage for us," his counterpart pointed out with a sly grin. He chuckled and leaned back to return to his lounge, taking a sip from his wine.

"Once you have her, perhaps. But she is unpredictable,"

"So is her namesake, for the most part. At the very least she and her friends are. We never did manage to get our hands on them when they were all together,"

"That I will concede," The bald Oslo admitted reluctantly, "I suppose you are proof of that. After all, what reason do I have to lie to myself?"

"Absolutely none. We are the only ones we can trust. Even you have known that for some time now,"

"Well, Darius _was_ useful for a time, and the fool never betrayed me,"

"Ah. I am off in my estimation. You'll run into that runt again,"

"Hmmm," Bald Oslo hummed with uncertainty. "Will he be a problem?"

"Nothing we cannot handle,"

"I would not have guessed it. He was always such a weakling,"

"But he had his uses," FutureOslo conceded

"Indeed. Though it seems that hard times are ahead. Hard, but perhaps not terrible. Losing Lena though—"

"Is not the end," The time traveler reminded him "You might even consider it an improvement. Lena Farrell will be quite the prize,"

"But is she worth both Lena _and_ Mila? According to you neither survives,"

"Mila is more trouble than she is worth," FutureOslo dismissed with a wave of his hand, "Besides, there is nothing to be done for her now. And Dahlia, while not a seijinn, is a most valuable and challenging prisoner for you to toy with,"

In his corner Cheng ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek to combat the sudden dryness in his mouth. His master's eyes flicked to him briefly. This was partially for him.

"Dahlia? That stubborn wench—"

"—has her value. And her daughter has inherited her figure. You might even say she has helped to improve the Farrell line with her contribution. Marcus's taint has diminished with the new generation and her infusion brought yet more seijinn potential, not to mention a certain…appeal," Cheng's master practically purred.

Cheng himself said nothing. He was never required to police his thoughts on anything short of treason and he suspected Oslo enjoyed his reactions. He did his best to keep a neutral mask on when they were discussing his former family. Finally his master's gaze settled on him and he jerked his head in a summons. The scientist bowed his head and approached, taking the computer tablet from behind his back and handing it to his master with a small bow.

"Sir," he mumbled. "The results from the collar scans and the data on the damaged drones,"

The sandy-haired man took the hand-held computer and tapped the button scrolled the screen down, briefly scanning the information.

"This is accurate?"

"It was the last of the data received before the transmission was terminated," Cheng replied promptly. His master 'hmmed' again and nodded absently, his eyes glued to the screen.

"Very good,"

"Sir," Cheng offered, "I would not recommend another dosage of excelerium for some time. The effects are—"

"Quiet, you will be consulted when your recommendation is required," His master barked. "And the other matter?"

"The next file, sir," Cheng stated promptly. His master swiped his finger across the screen to read the next set of information and 'hmmed' some more. Bald Oslo raised a hairless eyebrow.

"Well?" he enquired.

"Well it appears that our little bird is stubborn about her coop," The elder of the two muttered. "It is no matter, though. The danger is that she is creating a paradox, one that is becoming more tangled with every change she makes to the timeline. Our temporal physics are still theoretical. We don't fully know what the ramifications will be,"

"But you have an idea?"

"An idea, yes. I made a…miscalculation. I should have taken the old man with me," Cheng's head snapped up at the information and saw his master looking at him, watching his reaction. The scientist swallowed and looked down again. He had made his decision years ago. He had to live with it now. The younger of the seijinn duo narrowed his eyes at Cheng and cocked his head a little to the side.

"This one looks familiar…" he said questioningly

"Tibbald's grandson," His counterpart told him.

"The brat Cortez keeps around?"

"The very same,"

"How do you—"

"I shouldn't spoil all of your fun," the blonde Oslo said with a sly wink. The bald man felt a flash of irritation, though he supposed he could understand the logic. Cheng was discreetly eyeing both of them while keeping his head bowed ever so slightly in accordance with his subservient but not entirely servile position. His master seemed satisfied with his compliance and thrust the hand-held computer at him impatiently

"Get to work on counter-measures. Find out what side effects we might expect and have your team prepare our little toy in case of need,"

"Sir?" Cheng asked, a little wide-eyed.

"You heard me," His master snapped at him "If our little bird irrevocably alters the timeline than we shall respond in due course. I want a way out of this paradox if need be,"

"What about the drones sir?"

"Their supply is even more limited than usual, as are the rest of our resources. Salvage what you can and send the report on to me. Delegate the task to a Barcode. You are not to be distracted from your project. Go," the blonde man said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Cheng didn't linger. He bowed slightly and turned to walk away, straining his ear for any further conversation, but he would be disappointed. The two watched him leave without another word between them. Once he left he didn't doubt there would be questions from the younger seijinn but it no longer concerned the scientist. His was not to reason why with his master. His was but to do as he was commanded. If he didn't Celia would die.

8888888888888888888888888888

FutureDahlia was slow to wake from her nap. She stirred well before her teenager did, and took a moment to watch her child sleep much as she had done when her daughter was little. With a small smile she brushed a few strands of dark hair back and smoothed it across her head. She frowned a little when she felt the heat there and gently pulled the strands back to get a better look at the visible veins on her daughter's neck and jaw, not particularly liking what she saw. Dahlia sighed and leaned back against the wall somewhat. Lena was practically in her lap; she'd drifted off still holding her and now her arm had fallen asleep. She didn't particularly mind though. It had been far too long since she had had her little girl safe and with her, let alone in her arms.

"What am I going to do with you?" she murmured under her breath to her troubled teenager. The blonde woman rolled her shoulders and slowly, taking great care not to wake Lena, extricated herself and slid off the cot. She stretched and grimaced as stiff, tired muscles protested every which way. They had been taxed greatly after such a long period of disuse. She was so tired. She wanted to sleep but couldn't. Everything was aching. She also felt…strange. Vaguely ill but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Well, nothing to be done except perhaps to carry on with it.

Tiptoeing to the nearly-empty closet, Dahlia retrieved a moth-eaten blanket from the back of the old wooden wardrobe and shook it out, pausing a moment to check if the sound had woken Lena. The young woman murmured indistinctly and curled up on her side but otherwise showed no signs of rousing. Carefully her mother pulled the blanket over her, tucking her in with quiet experience. She paused upon finishing her task and straightened.

"She'll probably sleep for a few hours at least, but we should still keep our voices down," she said quietly to the person behind her without turning around. Mila opened her mouth and then closed it with a raised eyebrow. The seijinn hadn't really expected any less but was still mildly impressed. Dahlia crossed her arms over her chest and looked over her shoulder at the other woman. The _younger_ woman. Time travel made for many strange encounters, it seemed.

"How is she?" Mila asked. The time traveler looked back down at her daughter.

"I really don't know," the blonde almost whispered. Mila felt her own stomach drop in sympathy for the other mother's turmoil.

"Would you like to talk downstairs? It's just the two of us," she said "We might even get some air,"

Dahlia nodded and followed the other woman down the ladder.

"What will you tell Puerto Angel? They'll be asking questions," Dahlia remarked.

"Yes, they will," Mila agreed, "But the others are seeing to that,"

The two women climbed down the ladder. Dahlia paused partway down and glanced back at her daughter; the teenager's breathing was even, her face relaxed and her eyes closed. With a small sigh the blonde woman closed the door as quietly as possible and continued down.

Seven seconds after the slight thump of the trap door a pair of pale eyes opened slowly in the dark.

Dahlia winced as she made the mistake of skipping the last wrung of the ladder and had to maneuver herself around to keep her landing quiet. Every movement seemed to remind her of neglected, overused muscles she had forgotten she even had. It was more than that, though. There was an ache, a deep one that felt alien, even compared to the unfamiliar weakness in her battered body. She didn't know what it was, but she had a sinking feeling that it wasn't good. Ironically enough the woman who gestured for her to take a seat on one of the comfortable cushioned chairs would understand her position better than anybody. Unfortunately, Dahlia wasn't entirely certain that she and her mother-in-law were on the same side at that moment.

"Could I get you anything?" Mila asked her politely as she sat down on one of the old couches. The faint scent brought a feeling of nostalgia for her, back to when she was her twenty-something counterpart fighting the good fight and circling around the rambunctious Mahad in a tsundere dance that would eventually result in the teenager sleeping above them. Mila dragged a chair over a few feet to sit comfortably across from her but didn't take her seat immediately. Instead she stood behind the chair for a moment with her hands resting lightly on the back. The two women regarded each other, with Dahlia once again feeling very disconcerted at the similarity in their ages. She was older than her mother-in-law by a few years. That would never fail to be unsettling.

"Perhaps something to drink, please," Dahlia said. Mila nodded and disappeared through a door into the kitchen, emerging a few minutes later with a mug in her hands. The seijinn handed it to her and the time traveler was mildly surprised to find that she had been given a hot drink.

"Tea?" She asked, surprised at the luxury.

"You are a guest," Mila replied as she took her seat.

"Thank you," Dahlia murmured, sipping her drink. There was a heavy silence between them for nearly a full minute before Mila broke it.

"What will you do now?"

There was another heavy silence as Dahlia stared sightlessly in front of her at nothing in particular.

"I don't know," she said distantly. "I've already played her accomplice by telling you what happens. You knowing my past might change it. I can't take back what I told you, much though I would like to after thinking it over,"

"Much though you would like to?" Mila asked sharply, suspiciously.

"Could you sacrifice your children?" Dahlia questioned quietly from beneath hooded eyes as she ostensibly regarded the contents of her mug. Mila froze as the other woman elaborated, her tone distant and strained as though she were talking to herself rather than to the seijinn. "Not give them up, not lose being with them, but lose _them_ forever? To have never had them? To erase them? If someone like me showed up at your door after you joined the rebellion, what would you? If someone told you that helping them could make sure the rebellion succeeded, that you could make sure the good guys won and that none of your comrades would die, that you wouldn't lose Marcus, that none of it would happen—but that Mahad and Lena would never be born if you did it, would you help that person at your door?"

Mila stared at her. She couldn't answer that question and the time traveler knew it. Dahlia took a deep, shaky breath and let out a sigh. The blonde woman set her cup down on the table with an audible clunk and settled back in her chair and regarded the seijinn unflinchingly. There was a hardness in her face and gaze unrelated to her age. Mila didn't need powers to recognize it; she'd seen that type of hardness before and it did not set her at ease, nor did it encourage her in her own personal cause.

"If my Lena had gone back ten years instead of more than twenty, I would gladly have done all I could to help her. Selfish on my part, maybe, but I don't care anymore. Even with everything that I know will happen I don't know if I can give up my children," Dahlia said distantly. Mila stiffened.

"Children?" She said, picking up on the plural.

"Children," Dahlia repeated, meeting her gaze straight on. "Hmmm...No, I don't think I can do it. I won't, if I can help it. I know what you're afraid of, Mila, and you should be afraid of it. Let's just…leave it at that," The time traveler trailed off and picked up her mug again, swishing the contents a little. Mila swallowed.

"If you're so certain that your Lena isn't mine then why not let things change? Have both your daughter and your little sister?"

"I don't know when I conceived. If it was at your Lena's funeral then mine won't be born and even if the me that's running around in this time has a child with Mahad, has _children_ with him, they won't be _mine_. My past has made me who I am. And it's made them who they are,"

There was another long and heavy silence between the two of them. The two of them could hear the soft rattling of a gust of wind against the glass.

"What will you do?" Mila asked her again. The rebel sighed, exhaling through her nose as she stared sightlessly ahead. After a moment she looked the Mila directly in the eye.

"What I've been doing for years, I suppose," she said with a shrug "Do everything in my power to bring that sick son of a bitch down and keep my little girl alive,"

Mila held that determined hazel gaze.

"Me too," the seijinn said quietly. The two women remained staring each other down for a very long time, neither of them knew how long. They were at a strange impasse; firmly allied in one cause and firmly opposed on another. What might be the trickiest part was that each completely understood and sympathized with the other.

Meanwhile in the attic room the young woman slowly released the trap door down from the half-inch or so that she had had it open to listen to the conversation. Sound travelled in the small lighthouse, she had heard most of it. Careful to move soundlessly, the teenager returned to the cot and curled up under the blanket. Her eyes flashed bright blue in the dim light before she closed them. Lena had been sleeping since the argument with her mother, but Phoenix had been woken by the conversation between Mila and Dahlia. She had been interested in knowing what they talked about. In the meantime, though, the two women seemed to be done and Phoenix was going to allow the body she shared with her friend some more time for recuperation. It would give her time to reflect…and plot.

8888888888

Cortez sat in the darkened bridge of the Saint Nazaire, the only light coming from the faint orange glow of the computer display. It was his usual spot to go and think, to brood. It was a place where his crew or anyone would rarely bother him outside of an emergency. Often in quiet periods, whenever he thought about his old comrades. He would sit in this chair and listen to the radio, looking for another mission, for validation of his stubborn insistence on continuing the rebellion, on putting his people in constant danger. In a strange way the low, simmering anger that the propaganda reports raised in him were a source of comfort. Surely he wasn't fighting in vain; people were suffering under the Sphere. He was making a difference, carrying on the work that had been almost erased. Cortez hadn't needed to come to his brooding room in weeks, perhaps months. Not since their new rebellion had really started to hit its stride again.

The Captain rubbed his forehead with his fingers in a vain attempt to dispel some of his headache. He reached over and turned the radio down to background noise. He had enough to worry about without listening to the Sphere broadcasts today. To think: a week or two ago his biggest concerns had been balancing and organizing a rebel movement increasing in size and ambition and trying to work out how Marcus's family would fit into it. Now he had a former comrade who apparently wanted him dead, a former enemy who apparently did _not_, not one but _two_ Oslos running around scheming their demise where there shouldn't have even been one doing so, and a snarl in time that he couldn't so much as think about trying to figure out for fear of a blistering headache. To top it off said time travel mess had landed him with a highly unstable young woman who—tough her intentions were certainly beneficial to Cortez's cause—was for all intents and purposes a walking time bomb. He had a deck of wildcards. Now he had to cobble together some idea of how to lay them on the table.

What didn't help was the way his crew had been compromised so directly. Wayan and Dahlia were his right and left hands. Wayan was alright, but Dahlia had been thrown curve ball after curve ball in the past week. She was holding up admirably, but he couldn't expect her to be unaffected and she wasn't. Then there were Mila, her children and Kale. Each of them had been shaken to varying degrees as well. And then there was Julian…

A series of clatters and a muffled discussion brought the captain out of his reverie. Cortez bit his tongue to hold back a groan when he heard the approaching kafuffle that could only belong to one citizen of Puerto Angel.

"No, NO! I _know_ he's in there and he is _going_ to see me!"

"Calm down, Prattucci," Wayan said, his voice reasonable and placating as usual. He had patience that Cortez could only dream of. It was one of many skills that made him invaluable to Puerto Angel, the Rebellion, and above all Cortez. Unfortunately, he was sometimes _too_ patient with certain members of the community.

"Don't you tell me to calm down!" Prattucci shouted at him shrilly

"You can't go see the Captain right now, why don't you talk to me—"

"I'm not going to be dismissed by a lack-witted lackey! After that kafuffle out there I want answers! And so does everyone else!" Prattucci demanded

"Yeah, yeah," Wayan agreed dismissively "You know your definition of everyone else is a little different from the norm, right?"

There was a thud behind the door. Cortez was fairly certain it came from Wayan slamming his hand against the wall to block the smuggler's path. The Captain let out a sigh and got to his feet. Both he and Wayan knew that in this case Prattucci's idea of 'everyone' was far more accurate than it normally was. If Cortez could handle this annoyance it would be no problem to deal with the rest of the block and their concerns.

"Let him in, Wayan," The Captain half-groaned. He heard a huff and rustle as Prattucci straightened his blue suit in a huff and stormed his way in with Wayan trailing behind by a couple of steps. The dark-skinned rebel gave Cortez an apologetic shrug that was waved off wearily. They knew Prattucci would thunder around sooner rather than later

"I have had enough of this Cortez!" The black marketer fumed with his finger wagging and pointing ahead of him.

"Prattucci, if I had a litre of water for every time you said that I'd be richer than the Sphere," Cortez informed him. The disgruntled man paused only a moment to huff at that before bowling on with what he had to say.

"This is out of control! First you bring in yet _more_ _strays_, and I know that at least TWO of them are more seijinns! How many of those freaks do you need to have? You might as well put a beacon on us! First that—that _Lena, _then that brat running from guardians, then more seijinn kids, then the most notorious ex-convict in skyland fresh out of a prison break and now _these_ people? This is going to be impacting my business, Cortez! And then out of nowhere there's a _crash site_? And NO explanation?! No, enough is _enough! _The people of Puerto Angel demand an explanation, and they demand one now! Your rabble is out of control! It is time to show some _real_. _Leadership_!" Prattucci emphasized every few words with a sharp, downward jab of his finger.

"Prattucci!" Cortez barked, shutting the man up briefly. "There was no 'crash', someone landed a ship. Did you see an explosion? No. The matter is under control. At the moment we are sending out the message to the block to be on the alert while we determine the extent of the security risk of this unscheduled landing,"

"Extent of the—you might as well have put a big flashing sign on here! No, this is enough! The seijinns have something to do with this, I know it! They have to go! One way or another!"

"And I suppose you're going to tell me it's you or them?" Cortez drawled in annoyance.

"Where would this block be without my business?"

"Where would your business be without this block, exactly? Far as I can see, you have a pretty good deal here. You're the biggest supplier on the block, and don't think I don't know about how many deals and favors you rack up over here. How many water credits did Dahlia give you for that pie?"

Wayan blinked and looked up sharply. He wondered how his captain knew that. It wasn't a secret, but it wasn't something that had come up between them. Privately, Wayan wondered how much Dahlia had paid for her part of their dinner with the Farrells. Prattucci bristled and opened his mouth to start on another tirade

"And I don't know what your problem with Seijinns is, Prattucci, but I will not evict dozens of members of this community for the sake of your petty paranoia! Just remember that while you are a part of this community too you are not irreplaceable!"

"And they are? What is it with you and seijinns? I don't see how you fail to see how dangerous they are!"

"That is _enough_, Prattucci!" Cortez snapped, standing to his full height and looming over the smaller man. When he said it the statement carried more weight than when Prattucci liberally tossed the phrase around. The smuggler took a step back and swallowed. Intimidating him could be a simple matter when the captain chose to do so. Cortez took a step towards him.

"You have your answers, Prattucci. Go back home and leave it be. There was no crash, you will know more once we have figured out what is going on, just like everyone else. Now get out!"

Prattucci glanced back at Wayan. The dark-skinned rebel raised eyes eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest in a silent challenge. The smaller man knew when he was beaten. He had played his bluff a few too many times for anyone to really take it seriously anymore. He shut his mouth and gave the two of them a glare before turning on his heel and marching away. Once he slammed the door behind him Cortez flopped back into his chair wearily.

"Well, we have an hour or two before he takes to speech-making,"

"It's not really a problem. No one really has much time for his speeches anyway," Wayan reassured him. The Captain snorted absently.

"Aye, I suppose."

"So now what?" Wayan asked "We have a few hours until he needs a break from yelling to get his voice back. Then he'll go down from us to the Vector. What happens if he sees Dahlia? The other Dahlia? _Both_ Dahlias? He might actually be a problem for once by then,"

"Then I suppose we'll have to deal with that catastrophe when it happens," Cortez agreed, "Now to deal with the other half a dozen,"

Wayan gave him a humorless, sympathetic smile and pulled one of the other chairs along its groove so that it was closer to the captain's. He plonked himself down and leaned his elbows on his knees before heaving a short, reflective sigh.

"Well I guess the only thing to do is pick which disaster to avert next. So what'll it be? Crazy ex-rebel in the holding cell, non-crazy ex-guardian hanging around my over-stressed roommate, my roommate's frazzled older self in the lighthouse or Mahad and Dahlia's unstable teenager who won't be born for another three or four years? You should enjoy this one captain: not even we could get a crazier list again,"

Cortez smirked slightly. Another thing that made his second-in-commands invaluable; they knew just how to handle him as well. With a slight grunt Cortez hauled himself back to his feat wearily.

"Is Alice still here?" he asked.

"Yes, she's at my place. Dahlia had some questions for her about guardians,"

"Good," Cortez replied. "Go get her and tell Dahlia to help Lena keep an eye on Di Wan. You and Alice meet me back at the Saint Nazaire. I want to see what Julian has to say,"

**8888888**

It was night by the time the time Lena Dianne Farrell woke again. She winced slightly as she got up slowly and looked around the shadowed room. She sat up quickly when she saw her mother in the chair next to her bed.

"Mummy," she whispered as she reached for Dahlia's shoulder. She stopped just short of touching her, the outstretched hand hovering there a moment. Her pale eyes searched her mother's face, seeing the lines etched from stress and sorrow and the weathered texture her skin had gained since her days as the young Dahlia that belonged in this time. Some was age, but the weight loss wasn't. The dim light from the lamp left on the floor by the chair made her hollowed cheeks and dark circles beneath her eyes even more apparent. With a small sigh Lena moved her hand to brush the short braid of straw-blonde hair off her shoulder. Partway through the motion she froze, her eyes locking on her mother's face. Dahlia didn't stir; exhaustion had finally claimed her.

Swallowing back a lump of fear in her throat Lena slowly, carefully, lifted the limp wrists into her hands and gently pushed back the fabric of the long sleeves partway up her forearm. Lena's mouth opened wordlessly as tears formed in her eyes. She closed her mouth again and bit down on the inside of her cheeks to keep from making a sound as she stared at her mother's closed eyes. Without looking away she smoothed the sleeve back down over the half-healed scarring on her wrists. She recognized the injuries. She knew that they would be present on the other wrist and moreover she knew what they had entailed.

Something constricted deep in her chest. She felt it swell and rush, her heart started to pound in her ears, bile rose in her throat. For a moment she shook with fury and guilt. She had known it was likely, known that something had to have happened to her mother, that Oslo wouldn't have simply left her alone when she had information about his favourite obsession…but to see the confirmation brought a diving, overwhelming rush which gave way to a rattle in that part of her mind that housed the most dangerous force known to Skyland. The Phoenix had known. It had sensed it. Moreover, It knew more than she did about something, but It wouldn't tell her more than that. It wanted to help. It wanted to be let out. Her strength was returning to her but it wasn't back in full force yet. The Phoenix couldn't force its way out, not now.

Lena got to her feet and silently made her way to the small window, looking out over Puerto Angel. She was once again struck by the difference in the landscape. When she had last set foot on this block it had been a seedy, rundown haven for the worst kind of scum. Many of the houses had been demolished and converted into bars, gambling houses, gang head-quarters. It had been a den of rats that she had only sought haven in precisely because it was where everyone was told to stay away from. It couldn't be more different than the idyllic little town beneath her that slept soundly in their beds.

The Presence inside her head wheedled and bargained: pressing, conniving, _begging_. For a moment she lost herself in there as she listened to it. For once she wasn't railing against the thing, she just let it go on. At least, she did until a muffled sound from outside caught her attention. Lena peered through the glass of the window down to the blue-clad, dark-haired figure that was raging outside of a house she knew to be Wayan and the twenty-something Dahlia's. Lena let out a long, slow breath, clenching her teeth and her fists as she stared down at him.

The Thing in her head nearly exploded at the sight of the Traitor. Lena could feel its bloodlust, its thirst for his blood and screams but made no retaliation or angry quip to It. At her lack of this customary response It quieted. It wanted him. It _wanted_ Pratucci and It wanted him _badly_. It was poised, waiting in its cage but silent as it sensed her decision. Lena's fear and anger had always been the key to its prison door and the power it wielded had always been able to blast that door open at the first sign of weakness, but It didn't have that option today. This didn't matter.

Lena turned away from the window and closed her eyes.

_Be my guest._

When her eyes opened they flashed seijinn blue.


	20. Author's note

**Hey there everyone! **

So I'm back! There is a new chapter for Paradox that I will be posting by the end of this week, but that's not all I've been working on for the last couple of months. I have decided to take advantage of the informal and amateur nature of by going back and re-writing a portion of the story. For those who are reading this still (I love you!) you might want to re-read chapter 10 onwards, particularly the portions involving Di Wan's storyline.

For anyone who might be reading this that hasn't read the previous installments, the original plotline involving Di Wan was straight out of the "Amnesiacs are Innocent" trope; Di Wan had no memory of her life as a guardian and was essentially a different person. I have, however, come across a few of these as a reader and have discovered that I don't really like that trope generally. As such, I started to find it more interesting to play with Di Wan the way that I have with the changes that I have made. I hope you guys enjoy. Personally, I like this better. At least I do right now.

New chapter coming up soon! It's written! Just needs a once-over.


	21. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'd have a blast making this story into a multi-episode arc. **

**A/N: A special thanks out there to ASingleMind for their continued reviews and support. They have kept me on track with this story a couple of times when things have gotten crazy and I've neglected this story. I also can't say how much I appreciate the detailed feedback! This one's for you, I hope you enjoy :) As it should go without saying I hope you all enjoy if you are reading this :)**

**Chapter 20**

For the second time in a very short time Alice was sitting in on a conversation to determine the sincerity of one of the participants. This time, however, instead of being in the shadows the rebels had her set her up in another room entirely with a wall between her and the people being interrogated. For some reason this former rebel seemed to scare them. Not all of them perhaps, but Mila, Cortez and the Vector all seemed quite worried. She didn't know why, but their genuine and otherwise well-hidden concern was enough to make her glad for the efforts they were putting in to protect her identity. Her position was already dangerous as a double agent. Not even everyone on Puerto Angel knew who she was. She dressed in civilian clothing while visiting the rebels' hideout, which certainly helped, as did the brown wig and cosmetics that covered her red tattoo.

Cheng and Celia had recently concocted and installed a particular brand of two-way mirror based on some designs from Old Earth police stations. Celia had shown an aptitude for the sciences since she had arrived at Puerto Angel and begun schooling with the Vector. Having friends her own age, including other seijinns, had really brought her out of her shell so that she was now a vibrant and cheerful young girl. Her crush on Cheng hadn't abated; she had discovered her interest in the sciences while attempting to spend more time with him and share in his hobbies. She also had the advantage of a more consistent routine as a simple citizen not involved in the rebellion as well as a child, she therefore often had more time to spend on the projects that interested her. According to Cheng and the Vector the little girl had been quite helpful, particularly with the overlap in her science and seijinn lessons regarding light and its reflective properties. She had also been able to spend more time analyzing and studying the piece of mirror that they had salvaged from an abandoned block and brought back. Alice had only met the child briefly during one of her more recent visits to Puerto Angel, but the two of them had found common ground in their affinity for the empathic seijinn abilities. She hoped to meet with Celia again, perhaps, when she had more time. She would like to help Mila and Lena with all the seijinn children if and when she could, once it was safer for all involved. If it ever would be safer for all involved.

Thanks to this two-way glass, she could see everything inside the small room but the occupants from within would only see a wall. She could hear what was being said through a vent near the ceiling and therefore had to be quiet herself so as not to be heard.

Inside the room with the man they called Julian were Cortez and Mila along with Kale and another man Alice didn't know. It was clear why Kale's comrade was present, however: he was almost as big as the former gladiator and had a stun weapon in his hands in case Julian should get violent. Mila stood quietly, ignoring the black-tinted mirror behind her. Brief telepathy didn't seem to tax the older seijinn the way that other uses of her powers did and they planned to make use of that.

Julian himself seemed reasonably calm. He still wore the filthy, torn rags he had been captured in and he had bruising on the side of his face and scrapes on his arms, undoubtedly from the incident in which they had captured him. There was a chair provided but he did not take it. Instead he wandered slowly around the perimeter of the cell, looking it over, looking Kale and his companion over, impassively accepting the glares from the muscle-men, looking almost anywhere except Cortez and Mila—and taking every opportunity to show them his back.

Alice cocked her head and peered as she regarded Julian. He was nowhere near as confident as he made out to be. Neither were Cortez or Mila. The two of them were struggling to keep their tension out of their shoulders and bearing but not quite succeeding. The turncoat Guardian frowned a little and leaned forward in her chair to peer at the assembled group as they finally started to speak.

"What happened, Julian?" Mila asked him.

"Thirteen years, Cortez," Julian growled, ignoring her. He looked up at his former captain with fury. "THIRTEEN YEARS! You just _left_ _us_ in there!"

"Julian, we thought you were dead. You and Marcus and the rest of your crew. You went on a mission and disappeared. What happened to you?"

"We were taken prisoner, isn't it obvious? Wasn't it obvious? Thirteen of us! No, no you'd have thought fifteen, because Xhao and Jones died in the fight! Fifteen of us and you don't do _anything_! But _she_ gets thrown in Karzem and you break the _whole thing open_!"

"We didn't know. Mila's children let us know that was where she was taken. We looked for you, Julian. We couldn't find your ship. We thought the Sphere would be crowing from the rooftops that he'd captured Marcus—" Cortez started

"Oh yeah, Marcus. All about him, wasn't it?"

"You were one of his closest friends, once," Mila reminded him. "You were my friend too,"

"What happened, Julian?"

"Never so much as a REPLY TO OUR DISTRESS SIGNAL!" Julian screamed at them.

"WE NEVER GOT IT!" Cortez roared back. "No one did until last year. Mahad and Lena managed to pick it up while he was fiddling with the Hyperion's radio. The Sphere announced to everyone that you were _dead_, Julian. That your ship had gone down,"

Julian's mouth closed at that, though he continued to pace and grind his teeth. That news had surprised him, but he still simmered in anger. Mila and Cortez exchanged a glance before she started to talk again. This time when she spoke he at least looked at her.

"After your ship disappeared the Sphere made several strategic, massive attacks. They practically wiped the rebellion out. Those of us who survived were scattered,"

"You seem to be doing okay now,"

"You've been gone a long time," Cortez reminded him. To Julian's credit he seemed to be ready to make a retort about his rather salient knowledge of this fact but clearly re-thought it. Reluctantly he nodded

"Go on," he grumbled, nodding to Mila in an over-due acknowledgement of her presence.

"Angkor was decimated. It's been well within Sphere territory for over a decade. There's a factory on it now that manufactures prison uniforms, handcuffs and spare parts for S-22s. When the Sphere attacked we scattered. Lee and Naira were butchered, along with Talon, Johnston, Corinne, Ali. There are many others where we have no idea what happened to them. Others surrendered and disappeared into Sphere ships, never to be seen again. Others did what I did. We hid on smaller blocks that hadn't had census information sent in for years and blended in there. There were enough of us that the Sphere largely let much of that slide as long as no one caused any trouble. We managed to track down a few who eventually got better jobs and made lives for themselves under the Sphere after all,"

"You said 'like you', is that what you did? Got a job? Made a life?" Julian asked her.

Mila blinked. She was surprised at how little he seemed to have learned about the past thirteen years since his escape. Mila and her children's story was becoming a thing of legend and seemed to have spread across an impressive span of populated blocks since Mahad and Lena had begun working with the rebellion. The story had erupted like wildfire following the famed prison break which had freed their mother-and apparently Julian.

"I took my children and ran," she said "We barely escaped. There were others with us at first, but we eventually decided to split up. I never saw those people again. I took Lena and Mahad and skipped around on transport, using all the water credits I had to bribe my way into anonymous tickets. There were enough people connected to the rebellion doing the same that it didn't raise flags. I went to the last place they would look for me; an agricultural block in Sphere territory. Lena and Mahad were the best kept secret in the Rebellion then. The Sphere wasn't looking for a refugee mother with two young children. They were looking for a single, very powerful seijinn to be stirring up trouble and asking questions,"

"And why weren't you asking questions?" Julian demanded. Mila looked him right in the eye.

"I thought he was dead," she said slowly, gravely, emphasizing each word with patience. "And Marcus and I had a deal. Once Mahad was born we went on very few missions together. Each of us had a back up plan. If something happened to one of us, if we were captured or killed, we would take Mahad and any other children we might have to a safe place that the other didn't know about. The Sphere could find out about our children through torture, but not where they were kept. And it worked. They didn't find out for a dozen years,"

Julian was quiet for nearly a full minute. He seemed to mull this over and started to slowly pace a single stride in each direction. He was about to admit something that he knew was true but didn't particularly like; he was about to compliment someone he didn't like. The former rebel heaved a sigh.

"Well…they didn't break him," Julian admitted reluctantly. "Not when it came to your family. At least…not while I was with him,"

The rebels in the room straightened. They hadn't been sure whether or not to expect that answer but had nevertheless been prepared for it. Prepared mentally didn't necessarily mean prepared emotionally, however. From what Alice could tell, the rebels didn't know what to feel about that, particularly not Mila. The seijinn was struggling—and to be fair, largely succeeding—at maintaining a neutral expression on her face. She took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

"So he's alive?" she asked him. Julian shrugged

"I dunno," he stated.

"You don't know?" Cortez repeated, his question careful. Julian met his gaze and shook his head.

"He was alive six years ago. That was the last time I saw him in Karzem,"

"Karzem?" Mila demanded. "He was at Karzem? What did you mean? When did you see him? How did you see him?"

Mila had assumed the majority of the prison had been like her cell; tiny confined spaces where prisoners were either left strapped to chairs or in the small, cylindrical pits that were otherwise standing-room only. She knew she had been one of the highest-security prisoners, but the design had seemed rather efficient to her in the cold, clinical methods of the Sphere. It was clear she had been wrong. Karzem had been hidden and re-modeled after her departure from the Guardians; she had little knowledge of how it had been run and organized outside of her own tiny corner of it.

"I didn't see him that much," Julian said, a little taken aback by her sudden intensity. "After our first escape attempt they didn't want him stirring up trouble. Not that any of us really wanted to follow him after the second attempt. They beat us after the first, tortured us after the second, even if you weren't involved. If you so much had looked at him or listened to him they gave you a hard time. I still went along with him the third time. I regretted it. By the fourth I wasn't having any part of him. They didn't smack him around the way they smacked us around. He saw what they were doing to us and he still wanted to make some doomed escape! He was so…_obsessed _with not letting them 'break him'. He was fixated on it. Ignored the fact that some of us were already broken. In more ways than one,"

Alice regarded the ex-prisoner's face carefully. Oh they'd certainly broken him. In more ways than one, she suspected. She could sense his internal conflict between the loyalties he had once held and the hatred he had cultivated over the years in order to stay alive. She pitied him. She was also reasonably confident that he was telling the truth.

"Julian—" Cortez started

"Roy!" Julian snapped "My name is Roy, now. Julian died in Karzem thirteen years ago,"

The interrogation didn't continue for very long after that. The prisoner was drained emotionally and physically and had returned to fighting them. The rebels themselves felt the same. Aside from that the sun was setting and they lost their empathic lie detector. They talked to him for a few minutes mire but he surrendered no further information on Marcus or what might have happened to him. Finally they called it a night and left the man who had been Julian to his own devices with a bowl of broth and a blanket.

When they emerged Alice relayed her telepathically informed opinion to them which, oddly enough, didn't see, to comfort them that much. They were left with a great deal to mull over and think about. Their conversation with their former comrade would weigh heavy on their minds. At the same time, however, something was weighing on Alice's shoulders too. As she had hoped and expected, he was the last to head towards the door exiting the small room with its lone two chairs.

"Sir," she said when Cortez was about to leave. The captain hung back obligingly as the younger redhead stood at attention; a habit too ingrained to easily break "Sir, about …about your other, um..._guest_,"

"What about her?"

"Sir…I know what she's done-I do!- but I was wondering if… if mercy could be asked for her? After she's healed?"

"What exactly d'ye think we're going to be doing with her?" Cortez asked. He was curious but his tone was carefully controlled.

"I don't know, sir," Alice replied "I know she has committed a number of serious injuries against a number of your people and there will be some sort of… punishment,"

"Quite likely," Cortez agreed "What exactly are you trying to say here, Alice?"

"I'm…er…" Alice stammered as she tried to figure it out. She finally gave him a sheepish, uncertain look "Sticking my neck out? You know, for Di Wan?"

"Why in Skyland would you want to do that?" Cortez demanded bluntly, more surprised than annoyed.

"Look, she's done some… _terrible _things but she is—or at least was—capable of kindness. I was raised in Guardian school. I started when I was very young. She was a final year student when I got there and she, well she helped me. I was the youngest student and I was easy pickings for some of the other kids, but she protected me while she was there. Got me into a good crowd. She checked in on me after I graduate, she even came after me herself when you captured me. She didn't have to do any of that,"

Cortez shook his head sadly. His voice took on the gentle, paternal tone that many didn't know he was even capable of.

"Alice, you were and still are a very gifted young seijinn," he reminded her gently as he sat her down and pulled the other chair over to face hers. He took a seat across from her and continued "D'ye not think it possible that she was scouting you? Trying to build that rapport, that loyalty, to use for later?"

He didn't have to say that the move had clearly been effective. Alice set her mouth in a grim line. She was managing to _sit_ at attention. She was at the very end of the chair seat; her back ram-rod straight, her hands resting on her legs, her feet directly under her knees, her shoulders back. She stared directly at him with the straight, emotionless military face that he recognized well.

"Of course I have sir, and I haven't forgotten what she said to me after I failed her when I met you, but I think she could change. She might never be a Saint, but…"

"Alice, I think your loyalty is admirable. But I also don't know if someone like Di Wan can make the transformation you're talking about. _You_ didn't know what the Sphere was doing. _She_ did. And she was happy enough to enforce it all the same,"

"But what if there was something else that was different?" Alice argued

"Like what?"

"What if there was something she cared about other than herself or Commander Oslo? Sir, if your friend Julian can become the thug named Roy, maybe Di Wan could become something closer to Wanda again,"

Cortez still looked dubious and Alice cautiously determined that she had just enough room to press the issue ever so slightly further.

"Sir, from what I've heard, she didn't know who she was when she was first rescued at Oxford,"

"Aye," Cortez agreed "That's what she claimed,"

"Well what if she was telling the truth? She'd have been surrounded by people who knew Wanda and Dahlia. The first memories likely to come back would probably have been from her childhood. With her sister. I gather from Dahlia that they used to be close. That reminder for Di Wan might make a difference. Maybe it can make a difference in how she sees things. I don't think that everything she did for me when I was little was _just_ self-interest. If people can change once _maybe_ they can change again,"

Cortez regarded the young Guardian for several long moments. Neither said anything and Alice didn't read him out of courtesy. She sat stiffly and waited with baited breath, hoping not only for her former Superior's fate, but also that the Captain wouldn't think less of her for this conversation.

"I will think about what you've said," he told her finally. He sighed deeply and got to his feet, rubbing his neck wearily. "In the meantime, it's late. Feel free to stay the night if you like. The Vector should be able to find you some room. You can head out in the morning,"

"Thank you, Sir," Alice said with a curt nod. "I think I'll take you up on that. Wayan was offering to show me some of Puerto Angelo's sites if we had the time,"

Cortez raised his eyebrows. He would not have predicted that. When he thought about it a moment, however, he wasn't particularly surprised.

"Have a good time. Oh and, get something from the tavern. Tell your superiors you had engine trouble again and show them a room and board record or something,"

"Yes sir,"

"And Alice?"

"Sir?"

"Cortez or Captain is fine,"

Alice smiled at him. He didn't think he'd seen her do that, oddly enough. It made her look younger somehow, not that she looked particularly old, but her serious expression matured her. It was sometimes difficult to remember that she was a similar age to Dahlia and Mahad.

"Yes, Captain," she said as she headed out lightly. She closed the door behind her politely, leaving the captain alone with his thoughts once again.

8888888888

Prattucci grumbled to himself the whole way home as he stomped through the winding streets of Puerto Angel back to his house near the shipyard. He threatened to move another half-dozen times to himself as he pounded along with his clenched fists swinging in front of him. He was sick and tired of the rebels' attitude. He was sick and tired of them not listening to his warnings about seijinns and was doubly sick of the way they kept invading his home block. How was it that no one else saw the dangers of those freaks crawling all over the place like rats? They were dangerous! If Sphere flag ships could be destroyed by one little girl what was to stop her kind from creating catastrophes?

Prattucci continued muttering to himself as he locked the door behind him. He then moved to check than none of his alarms had been activated and did a quick check in his computer to make sure that nothing had left his stores before resetting the computer key lock. One couldn't be too careful these days, what with the riff-raff that Cortez kept bringing in. He had already rigged some of the locks with Excelerium that he had forked out a fair bit to obtain. He wasn't sure if Cortez even knew he had it, but that didn't really matter as long as it kept the Seijinn thieves away as well as human burglars. By the time he had checked and re-locked everything in his trading post, checked for any messages from clients and potential customers and shut all but the security generators down, he was no longer as angry. His routine usually burned off some of his steam and he returned to being merely irritated at his situation, lulled by the familiarity and general comfort of his home and his life. He would never tell Cortez this, but he often could overlook the seijinns because he did truly like where he lived. It was his home; he was comfortable in Puerto Angel. He might threaten to move out but he probably never would. He had a good deal, not that he would ever let Cortez know that he thought so privately. It wasn't a good policy for a business man such as himself.

Prattucci planted his hands on his hips and swiveled around to regard his shop with a satisfied sigh before heading up the stairs to his personal apartments wearily, but no longer angrily. He was still irritated and had every intention of pressing his case with Cortez until the infuriating man was forced to listen to him. He still muttered to himself, though thoughts concerning his business started to rise up in his mind. He had an upcoming deal to broker with some suppliers who had gotten their hands on a shipment of flavored drinking alcohol. That was a highly sought-after commodity…

The man was so absorbed in his thoughts that he entered his rooms and closed the door without so much as noticing that he was not alone. Then again, he had failed to notice that he had been carefully stalked for most of the night from a discreet distance. It was not until he had closed his door behind him, tossed his keys onto the small side table near it and walked past the living room did a very deliberate movement catch his peripheral vision. He then did a double take and jumped back in alarm, pinning himself against the wall when he saw the shadowed form of someone sitting in his comfortable cushioned chair.

The room was illuminated solely by moonlight, giving the silhouette of the young woman a pale sheen. She sat in the chair as though she owned it; her long hair a loose curtain around her face, one leg crossed over the other casually and her fingers loosely linked with her elbows resting on the arms of the seat. As Prattucci pressed himself against the wall and started fumbling blindly for some kind of weapon she looked up at him. The man was struck with a paralytic alarm when her eyes struck his; they literally glowed in the dark from behind her hair: the irises the bright blue of seijinn energy down to the occasional white wisps that flicked across them.

Prattucci stood shaking where he was and she smirked, her shadowed face somehow made legitimately frightening in the action. She drummed her fingers on the air in front of the chair arm.

"You certainly take your time," she remarked.

Prattucci bolted for the door. Within two strides a fist seized his hair and he was slammed into the wall. There was a flash of pain before his vision went black and he knew no more.

88888888888888

FutureDahlia blinked sleep out of her eyes blearily. Sleep had failed to revitalize her and instead had left her feeling stiff, heavy and irritated. She had spent so much time asleep whilst Oslo's prisoner, the thought of wasting more time unconscious set off a distant sort of anxiety about having missed so many hours. The vague, indeterminate feeling of discomfort hadn't abated, either. As the woman started to sit up she realized that she had been moved from the chair to the cot, something she hadn't remembered doing or being done. She was also covered with the same blanket she had tucked her daughter in. Her daughter, on the other hand…

Dahlia sat up slowly and stiffly, frowning a little as she peered around the room. She was alone. Her trepidation didn't quite abate at the sound of movement on the floor below her. She opened the trap door and descended the ladder, slowing when she was able to see the room beneath her. It was empty. Worryingly empty.

"Lena?" she called. She imagined her voice echoing a little as she wandered through the familiar old lighthouse. She made her way to a little room that she remembered and knocked on the door. When she heard no answer she opened it tentatively.

"Lena?" she repeated. Inside the room contained a host of medical equipment and, as it happened, was occupied.

"She's not here," the Vector said as he looked up from his instruments. "But please, do come in,"

"Is that…" FutureDahlia began, pointing to the man laid out on the bed in front of the Vector. The old man's face fell in sympathy.

"I'm afraid so," the Vector told her as she came to stand at Kale's bedside. The former gladiator was hooked up to a set of rudimentary hospital equipment. The volume on the monitors was turned down so that the beeping was not obnoxiously loud the way hers had been while in captivity. FutureDahlia searched his face, taking note of the burn-like wounds and the large, puckered puncture marks. Beneath the wounds his face was haggard from years of strain and torment. She wondered if he stood any chance of waking at all.

"I'm sorry old friend," she told him sadly.

"I take it you remain friends?" the Vector inquired politely.

"Yes," she told him. "He's my Lena's Godfather,"

"Really?" the Vector asked in surprise.

"Well he pretty much campaigned for the job," she said with a nostalgic smile. "He and Wayan share the title,"

"Hmm," the Vector said, intrigued. "I would have thought Cortez would be…"

FutureDahlia's smile became a wry, fond smirk.

"He already had a… different claim to me and Mahad's kids," she said cryptically.

"Kids? Plural?" the Vector asked. The time traveler's face fell.

"Yes," she said. "But I'd rather not talk about that if you don't mind. On the subject of my offspring though, where is she?"

"Upstairs, with you, isn't she?" the Vector asked, perplexed. FutureDahlia straightened. The weight that settled in her chest seemed to clench in a knot of trepidation.

"No," she stated slowly as she eased away from Kale's bedside. "Vector, when did you last see her?"

"When she went upstairs this afternoon. I've been here, she hasn't talked to me. Why do you ask?" he asked her.

"No reason, I hope," she replied as she headed out the room before adding "But maybe a very good reason,"

8888888

"This place really is charming," Alice remarked as she and Wayan strolled through the largely deserted streets of Puerto Angel.

"Well, its home," Wayan agreed with a smile.

"You're very lucky,"

"Thank you," the rebel replied. "So what about you, where do you normally live?"

"Oh I have an apartment in the living quarters of a Sphere Admin Center," Alice told him with a shrug.

"Don't think I've been that deep in Sphere territory before," Wayan remarked. His companion shrugged.

"It's not far from the Academy. It's…well it is beautiful around there," she admitted reluctantly. "A lot of architects put a lot of work into it,"

"Bet there's water everywhere,"

"It's not as flagrant as you'd like to think it," Alice told him, though there was no offense in her tone "The Sphere isn't the only one who produces propaganda. We have a few little streams set up for decoration. In the official buildings there is tight monitoring on the water flows and usages. It has to be aboveboard. I report my personal water usage on a daily basis whilst in residence,"

"Is that because of us?" Wayan asked her quietly.

"No," she replied with an easy smile and a shake of her head "That's for everyone! We don't get rationed unless we over-use. I can have water-showers once in a while if I want to. Takes some saving up if you want a decent one though,"

"I've never had one of those," the rebel remarked. "It just seems so…weird. I mean, you're gonna _drink_ that later after it gets re-treated,"

"You've _never_ had a shower? Ever?"

"No!" Wayan laughed. "Never been rich enough. I've had damp towels, but even then I use chilled oil a lot of the time if I want to cool off from climbing or something. For bathing I do what everyone else does; oils and sand-scrubs,"

"I know a lot of Guardians who would be baffled at that. Some of them might even be disgusted, but then we have our share of snobs,"

The two of them wandered over to the edge of the block. At that particular section they had erected a railing for a few meters. They were slowly trying to build it along areas where there children played to avoid accidents, but they were also for decorative purposes. The pair both leaned forward to rest their forearms on the railing to enjoy the view of the horizon, particularly the large, bright moon which hung clearly in the sky that night and the blanket of stars. Alice studied with sky with a small smile.

"You don't get this kind of view at the Central Admin block," she said wistfully before adding "Too many lights on, especially on the neighboring plaza-blocks in the terra-complex,"

"Yeah, there's a similar thing with some of the places that I've been to, though I doubt there as…well kept,"

"I'm sure they have their own unique charm,"

"Well enough of them have their own unique _smell_," Wayan retorted with a grin. Alice grinned and failed to stifle a giggle. Encouraged by her amusement the rebel started off on a story of a trip that he and Dahlia had taken with Cortez to one of the seedier joints and their inventive if potentially unhygienic escapes that the escapade had ended with. By the time he was done the Guardian-turned spy was laughing openly.

"Oh Skyland!" She panted, "I wish I could say that I can top that, but really my life is nowhere near that interesting—"

The Guardian stopped, suddenly and straightened, peering back towards the block.

"Alice?" Wayan asked as a frown creased her forehead. "What is it?"

"I don't know," Alice said as she stepped forward a half-pace.

"Are you…sensing something?" Wayan asked her, hesitating with slight confusion.

"I shouldn't be," she told him with a shake of her head. "It's night. The only Seijinns I know whose powers operate without sunlight are Oslo and Lena. I've never been able to sense anything after sunset before…"

"…But?" Her companion started for her.

"But there's something…wrong," she trailed off. Wayan came to stand next to her and took a moment to assess what he could see and hear of the block. His mouth settled into a grim line.

"I don't know that you have to be a seijinn," he said "You're right. Something's off. I'll check in with Cortez,"

Alice nodded and he got out his radio, both of them wishing they could put their finger on what had set their backs up.

8888888

Prattucci's ears rang and his head pounded as he came to. He was lying face down on the floor in the middle of his apartment. At first he was dazed and confused, but memory quickly flooded back to him and tried foolishly to bolt up, only to have a brief bout of nausea and a flash of pain in his head force him back down.

"Good," a voice from his left remarked "I'm not going to need smelling salts,"

Slowly this time Prattucci moved so that he could see the speaker. He was panting and shaking as he started to push himself up.

"Who…who are you?" he asked "Did…did Trawn send you? You t-tell him that his shipment isn't due for another week and he'll get it when he—"

"What a disappointment," The woman sneered at him, cutting off his demand. She paced around him with loose arms and an easy, dangerous impatience. After a moment she surged forward into his personal space and tapped her head with her index finger. "I'm not here for anyone but _us_,"

"Us?" Prattucci's voice quavered. "Wh-who's us?"

"This really is something," the woman said with a deep, satisfied sigh, stretching out her arms and then planting her hands on her hips. She craned her neck around and at the ceiling, a strange grin on her face. She shivered and shrugged, a small laugh bubbling up from her lips. "I mean, I've never been _me_ without powers. It's very unnerving, I have to say. But such a refreshing _challenge_! I mean normally I can just use powers akin to that of a demi-god and really I'm just fighting with her all the time even though it's really all for her own good—_where do you think you're going_?"

Prattucci had started to slowly crawl away from the intruder in his home as she spoke. He was only a few feet from the door when she lunged forward and stepped on his calf to stop his progress. He cried out in a mingling of fear and pain, though the sound was muffled by the hand that slapped across his mouth. She leaned over him so that her head was right next to his.

"I don't talk to people that aren't her all that often," she said in his ear quietly "It's _rude_ for you to try and walk out,"

Her fingers dug into his cheek, though Prattucci barely noticed it above the rush of terror and adrenaline pumping through his body. He whimpered and to his shame felt tears building in his eyes, desperation and fear giving him a burst of unexpected strength that dislodged the girl's grip as he made another bid for the door. His fingers managed to brush the knob before having the breath knocked out of him again and was hauled away from it. Before he had time to recover he was yanked up to his feet and half-thrown into his favourite easy-chair. The young woman was pacing in front of him again, her exertions having left her breathing just heavy enough to be audible.

"Don't try that again if you know what's good for you. I don't do third chances. Not even for her," his captor informed him with a near-demonic grin that left far too much to his imagination about what she would do that was "bad for him". He didn't want to know. He was also pretty sure he was going to find out anyway. He sat shaking in his chair as the teenager examined her forearms and flexed various muscles experimentally.

"You know, this isn't bad? Good job Lena, good job. Little tough, you could lay off that extra food pal, but not bad. Now I get why she was always lifting those things without letting me help. She can actually pack a punch on her own. But enough self-reflection," The young woman placed her hands on the arms of the easy chair and leaned over Prattucci. The man sank down into his seat, pressing away from her as far as the seat allowed. He cared less and less for the smug little smile on her face.

"The bigger question is, what am I going to do with you?"

888888888

"_Aye, Wayan, ye're right," _Cortez affirmed. He was apparently at the Lighthouse, having been summoned by the Vector. "_Something is up. Apparently one of our…guests is missing. Her mother woke up to find her gone and we've no idea where she went," _

"There's no way anyone's taken her, is there?" Alice asked.

"I pity the person who'd _try_!" Wayan exclaimed "She definitely wouldn't go anywhere quietly,"

"_Her mother seems to think that she's taken herself off somewhere. Start looking for her. She shouldn't be able to use her powers—even if night doesn't restrict her, her mother seems to think that the Exelerium in her system will still be limiting them so she's vulnerable. Start looking for her. She's been out all night by the looks of it but there aren't many places she could have gone, none of the ships or speeders are missing,"_

"We'll start looking captain," Wayan agreed. "Over and out,"

He pocketed the radio. Alice shrugged towards one of the buildings.

"Shall we?"

The two of them were a reasonably good team as they moved through the deserted streets again, this time paying close attention to anything potentially out of the ordinary or which might leave a clue. They found little worthy of note.

"I don't see anything," Alice said as she checked behind a wooden container of some sort. Wayan recognized it as one of the hiding spots Lena had used during the Perihelia when fleeing Prattucci and his accusations. Unlike that day, however, the alley was empty of wayward seijinns. The stirring memory made the rebel pause a moment and crane his head back.

"If I were a seijinn…." He murmured to himself.

"What?" Alice asked.

"Think about it," he said as he climbed on top of the wooden dumpster and reached for the roof. He pulled himself up with ease; he'd always loved climbing. "She's a powerful seijinn who's used to…being on the...run," he grunted as he reached down to help haul Alice up with him. She took the offered hand and was glad of it when she briefly slipped, though she managed to recover quickly.

"What don't people do most of the time, even in Skyland?"

Alice frowned a moment before it dawned on her as they got their bearings on the top of the roof and stood.

"Look up," she answered after a few minutes pause when looking down at the street below. "Not unless there's a noise or they're watching for a ship or something,"

"And you're harder to reach—whoa!" Wayan started, flailing his arms as he nearly took a misstep. This time it was Alice who reached out to steady him and the pair ended up crouching to regain their bearings.

"It would need good balance though," he added.

"Most seijinns have that, at least most Guardians do. We train physically in order to enhance our other abilities. Martial arts, dance, gymnastics, that sort of thing. The physical stamina and discipline helps when you start getting into serious seijinn work. Someone as powerful as she is would likely have gotten similar training," Alice told him. To demonstrate she stood and walked to the edge of the roof and back with her arms out at only a slight angle. She stepped carefully in the dark but otherwise had much less trouble than he had had while standing.

"Alright," Wayan said as he stood again, slowly and with more caution this time. "So she could have come this way. But what exactly could she have been doing up here?"

"Wayan," Alice started.

"What?"

"What's that building?" she raised her chin in the direction in one of the few three-story buildings on the block. The green-eyed rebel cocked his head slightly and peered at it as he took another careful step on the roof to match her.

"That? That's Prattucci's place. Why?" he asked her.

"I don't know," Alice replied. "I just have a strange feeling…"

The rebel shrugged.

"I'll take it. If Lena's hunches are anything to go by,"

"It _shouldn't_ be a seijinn thing at night, but…" Alice started again with uncertainty as she, too, shook her head. Wayan put a hand on her shoulder and she nodded to him. The two of them slid down the roof with care and jogged over to the entrance to the building. When the rebel tried the door it was locked.

"Should we knock?" Alice asked him. The rebel frowned at the door as he considered this. He stepped backwards and craned his neck to look at the window to the upper floor.

"We never look up," he repeated to himself under his breath, his green eyes narrowing at the window with suspicion. In his mind he replayed the brief moments in which Lena Farrell had met or even seen Prattucci. Thinking back on it now, he hadn't anticipated the ferocity with which her cold eyes had followed the smuggler, had bored into him. Annoyance he might expect, but it hadn't been dislike he had seen there. It was hate. Suddenly he had an inexplicable hunch of his own and his had nothing to do with psychic abilities. Just then Dahlia rounded the corner and approached them quietly.

"Looking for the other Lena?" she asked them in a low tone. They nodded.

"You?" Alice asked. She nodded.

"Prattucci left one of his memory keys at the tavern. No way he wouldn't have noticed it before he went to bed, apparently. Can't help but wonder what could have distracted him from it," The blonde said. She brandished the small rectangle briefly to show them and then stuffed it back in one of her pockets. She gestured towards the door.

"Shall we?"

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Prattucci shook and whimpered as he stared up at the young woman staring back at him, his eyes terrified saucers. The teenager was now perched in his chair, balancing on the balls of her feet with her elbow on her knee and her chin in her hand. She drummed her fingers along her jaw line, rather enjoying watching him squirm. He was clutching wrist attached to the hand she may or may not have broken a minute or two ago. He'd tried to bolt again. She'd knocked him over and stepped on his hand. So far she hadn't done very much to him, merely toyed with him and prevented him from escaping while she pondered on how she was going to kill him. She had fantasized about this moment for such a long time and now she not only had him in her claws—er—hands, but she had as close to approval from her other self as she was ever going to get. She could savor the moment instead of rushing it.

"Please," Prattucci blubbered.

"Don't beg," she snapped back at him, her anger flaring. "Hypocrite. _She_ begged you and you did nothing. Worse, you _gave_ her to your stupid scientist friend. You _knew_ what he'd do to her, you had to! But because she was a seijinn you didn't care!"

"What…what scientist?" the man on the floor pleaded.

"The anti-seijinn fanatic. Do you _know_ what they did to her? You were there, I remember seeing you! I _remember_! You had to have known what he was doing to her!"

"_Who_? Who did what to who?! I don't understand!"

"Me!"

"I don't _know_ you!"

"I don't _care_. I've been waiting to get my hands on you for _years_,"

"Look, I'd never met you before you turned up with Cortez,"

"You will,"

"You're not making any _sense_!" Prattucci practically wailed. "I can pay you! I-I-I have connections! I can get you anything you want!"

"How convenient. I want you dead,"

"_Please!_" He was almost sobbing now.

'I think I like the idea of strangling you and throwing you over the block," the teenager growled. His blubbering was getting on her nerves, not the least of which because it bothered her. She had dreamed of hearing him beg her for mercy and now that he was she wasn't enjoying it as much as she had thought. This frustration didn't dull her hatred for him, though, nor did it dampen her pleasure so much that she would change her mind about killing him. On the contrary, she would simply hurry it up; the game was getting old more quickly than she had anticipated. That was surely the answer, yes, that had to be it. She reached one lightning-quick hand for the smuggler's throat as he cried out in fear just as the door opened.

"NO!" Alice yelled as she and the rebels burst into the room. The sound startled Phoenix and she whipped around in to see Wayan flying at her in a full-body tackle that sent her crashing away from her intended victim and into the glass table. The seijinn had been so caught up in her prey that she hadn't heard their approach up the stairs, or even the dulled thud of the door giving way with a careful, quiet and expert shove below.

The impact of the landing from the tackle shattered the glass table and sent both Wayan and the teenager sprawling amongst the broken shards. With the release of the pressure from his throat Prattucci made a desperate, wheezing gasp for air, his hands instinctively going up to his already-bruising throat. Dahlia hurried over to his side to try and assess him briefly before it became apparent that Wayan was struggling.

The dark haired young seijinn kicked him off her and somehow managed to get her hands under her shoulders and vault off them back to her feet, heedless of the glass beneath her. Wayan managed to roll away and buy the fraction of a second that he needed to get back to his feet before bringing his hands up to block a punch. He was put on the defensive briefly before an unexpected drop kick caught him off guard enough for her to whip around and strike an elbow into his gut, winding him. He wasn't sure why he hadn't expected dirty fighting from her, but it had caught him unexpectedly.

Dahlia had her energy bow out and pulled back. Her eyes darted to the horizon outside the window briefly before moving to a better position and taking rapid, but careful aim, firing an energy bolt aimed for Lena Dianne's shoulder. The seijinn dodged it and made another dive for Prattucci.

"_Stop_!" Alice half-shouted as she hurled an energy blast at the teenager. The blue burst of light struck her side and threw the dark haired seijinn back onto the dusted glass table with a grunt. Dahlia heaved a sigh of relief, very glad of the faint yellow glow to the skyline that signaled sunrise and the return of the telepath's powers.

The effect was perhaps not as severe as they might have hoped. Wayan had barely managed to retrieve his radio and relay the urgent message to Cortez that the teenager rolled to her side and got to her feet. The glare she gave them sent chills down the rebels' spines, but they held their ground. Or at least they did until Alice suddenly tensed, her gaze drawn to where the slowly spreading beams of sunlight touched the other seijinn's scratched skin on her left side. Before their eyes the new scratches created by the shattered glass started to scab over even as other, older marks from a few days prior started to fade. The other two rebels took an involuntary step back.

The young woman in front of them noticed their reaction and glanced down at herself, slowly raising and turning over her arms to observe the subtle changes there. She withdrew a shard of glass from her hand that should by all rights have been very painful and simply watched the bleeding slow as the red gap in her skin narrowed. When her eyes flicked back up to them the irises glowed with seijinn energy. She smirked.

"Well, well," she said. "Look what we have here,"

Her arm shot out with a bright blue blast.

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"_Cortez, we're at Prattucci's house! Dianne's gone crazy! We need back up!"_ Wayan's voice echoed urgently over the radio.

"Prattucci?!" FutureDahlia exclaimed. "Shit! I'd forgotten about him,"

There was a distinct lack of sympathy in the way she growled out her statement, but she nevertheless picked up a stiff run.

"We'd better hurry, or there won't be much left of him," she said grimly.

"You don't sound very enthusiastic about saving him," Cortez remarked as he easily kept pace with her.

"I'm not, but I don't want more blood on my daughter's hands," she replied "And I suppose at this point he hasn't actually done anything… yet,"

As the group turned the corner someone slammed into Cortez, throwing both of them off balance. Both recovered, however, and the woman who had collided with the Captain kept running. Cortez blinked before pulling out his blaster with annoyance and aiming it at Di Wan's back.

"Not what I need right now!" Cortez growled.

"STOP!" FutureDahlia exclaimed in alarm, yanking his blaster away so that is struck the ground in front of them. "That's your… oh never mind!"

"Dahlia-!" he started

"Look where she's going! She's going to help! Jeez, how far back are we?" she demanded as they continued towards their destination. Cortez had no response to that. He didn't have a chance to think of one before the time travelled suddenly cried out sharply and grabbed her left shoulder.

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Dahlia cried out and dove to the side to avoid one of Pratucci's decorations falling on top of her, rolling instinctively when she hit the ground, a move which slammed her into the wall at the corner. She grimaced as it hit her bad shoulder, the one prone to dislocation. Before she could react any further a sphere of blue energy surrounded her. She reached her other hand out towards Prattucci and the man started to gargle as he was raised into the air by his throat.

"Sorry mother," the dark haired seijinn said, "But I'm afraid I can't let you interfere this time,"

"Let her go," A familiar voice ordered as another blast came from the doorway. Lena Dianne threw up an arm to defend against the blast but was still thrown off balance enough to stagger back. The bubble around Dahlia flickered enough for her to see Di Wan standing in the doorway with a hand outstretched.

"How did you…" Wayan started.

"Do you really want to talk about this now, rebel?" Di Wan drawled at him before turning her full attention on the young woman in front of her and pointing a dramatic, accusing finger at her.

"That woman you are holding prisoner is my sister. Release her now and I _might_ show you some mercy,"

It was downright weird hearing that familiar dark, condescending tone being used to try and aid one of the rebels. The teenaged seijinn raised her eyebrows in apparent surprise at it as well. She snorted in amused disbelief.

"You really _were _a bitch!" she laughed "Sorry auntie, but this woman is my mother. My claim's better,"

"You are clearly delusional," Di Wan said derisively "Release my sister and…"

She glanced over at Dahlia. The rebel nodded and Di Wan rolled her eyes, grumbling "Alright, _and him too_. Since they _really_ want it,"

Her opponent smirked.

"I don't think so, Auntie. You _would_ be the one to understand, but you don't," she said. Nothing about her statement made a great deal of sense to the other occupants of the room, but they didn't have time to puzzle it out. In a whip like motion her hand shot out again with another blast and the blue sphere around Dahlia flared. Di Wan managed to deflect most of it but was forced back several steps. She snarled and prepared to gather her energies for a full fight when yet more people burst through the door next to her. The former Guardian snapped her head round and was nearly floored with shock at the sight of the blonde woman who stormed into the increasingly crowded room.

_"__Phoenix!" _FutureDahlia thundered, her tone angry, firm and reproachful. The seijinn cringed.

"I don't know what you're talking about, mother," she said as she focused in on the struggling Prattucci and yanked him into the air and out through the broken window so that he was dangling over the edge of the block. She released the pressure on his neck enough to allow him a brief attempt at a yell before she cut it off, releasing his throat again only to allow him to breathe—and beg. The implicit threat against yelling out was clear, however. FutureDahlia saw this silent exchange with a mixture of concern and annoyance.

"Don't give me that, young lady, remember who you're talking to," she snapped.

'Phoenix' rolled her eyes and ground her teeth.

"*_You always could tell," _she muttered, the strange echoing effect suddenly appearing in her voice.

"I'm your mother. What do you expect? Put him down on the floor, right in front of me. _Now,_"

"*_NO!" _Phoenix screamed, at once furious. "*_Not after what he did to us!"_

"He hasn't done anything yet!" FutureDahlia snapped back, her voice rising again.

"If you kill an innocent person," Alice started to pipe in. Di Wan seemed to fully notice her for the first time from her position by the door as she watched the unfolding scene with great confusion, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly as the redhead continued "I don't think it will make you feel better,"

Phoenix laughed cruelly

"*_Shows what you know,"_ she scoffed, her attention focusing again on Prattucci. She slowly cocked her head to the side. His body slowly angled in the air to mirror the motion on a larger scale.

"No, no Phoenix, think about this," Alice insisted, quickly picking up on the name change used by the time traveler. "If you kill him,you prove him right about us,"

_"__He'll be dead, so who cares. And then he won't be able to double cross us or hand Lena over to _him_ and he won't be able to hurt any of you with his stupid, petty little paranoia_!" Phoenix growled.

"Paranoia that you're validating!" Alice exclaimed.

"Listen to Alice," FutureDahlia told her, "And think about this. This will not get the result you want. Listen to Lena, she will tell you the same if you let her talk sense to you, Phoenix,"

The teenager laughed.

"*_Let her? Ha! She wants this almost as much as I do. Why do you think _I'm_ here when there's still this much excelerium in our system? She's _giving_ him to me. She was always going to give him to me, she just wanted to wait until she could set it up to look like one of his black market deals gone wrong-"_

"Phoenix!" FutureDahlia interjected.

"*_What's the matter, mother?" _Phoenix demanded heatedly "*_Don't like what you're hearing? He deserves this! And worse! You KNOW what that man did to her, to both of us! HE gave us to him! You found us, you know what he did!"_

"But this man hasn't done any of that yet!" FutureDahlia bellowed back "And _I_ was the one who picked up the pieces the first time you killed, if you'll remember! You don't stick around for the consequences of your actions, Phoenix! You leave that to Lena and you don't care! You are not doing that to her again or to me! _Do you understand me? _Put him down on this carpet _right now! _I will not tell you again!"

Phoenix didn't turn around and stood rigidly rooted in place, her arm shaking. Wayan, the only one who could see her face, saw the trembling snarl and the darting eyes as she struggled with herself, torn between loyalty to her mother and her desire to kill. Finally she looked Prattucci in the eye and glared at him. Her dangling captive stared back with round eyes and a slack face as she concentrated on him. The bubble around the twenty something Dahlia vanished and the rebel got to her feet and rushed over to her future self.

"What is she doing?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," the elder replied.

'Lena and Mila are on their way," Cortez told them in a low voice.

"They might not be needed. Her powers are still weakened, Wanda and Alice might even be able to do it," FutureDahlia said out of the corner of her mouth. The two Guardians exchanged a quick but loaded glance before looking back at their potential target.

"Phoenix, I won't tell you again," FutureDahlia warned.

With an irritated grumble Phoenix hurled Prattucci back through the window to skid across the floor. The man lay curled up in the fetal position with his hands over his ears and his eyes wide and staring, shaking. Wayan hurried to his side as Phoenix held up her hands in apparent surrender. Without so much as a pause Di Wan threw a blue, spherical prison around her. Alice hesitated only a moment before adding her own power to it. Di Wan looked Alice up and down once.

"Well," she remarked dryly "This explains a fair bit,"

Alice said nothing. Di Wan turned her attention to the twenty something Dahlia.

"I don't suppose rushing to your rescue will earn me any sort of explanation about…" she looked in turn from Alice to the cowering Prattucci to the seijinn she was containing and finally to the time traveler before settling on her sister again and offering "Something?"

Lena and Mila ran up through the door. The thirteen-year-old stopped when saw the Guardian and reflexively clenched her fists.

"Di Wan!" she exclaimed

"Oh look, the cavalry has arrived," the former guardian quipped. Lena blinked and took in the rest of the room.

"Wait… you weren't involved with this?"

"Surprised me, too," Cortez told them. Lena hurried over to Prattucci's side.

"What did she…" Lena trailed off with concern. She and Prattucci had never been friends, but she'd never wished him any harm! Without any further delay she held her hands over him and sat back on her heels. Blue fireflies of seijinn power hovered between her and her patient as she used her abilities to try and determine what had been done to him psychically and to determine if she could reverse it.

"Lena?" FutureDahlia asked tentatively as she stepped forward. The thirteen year old perked automatically at the sound of her name and saw the time traveler looking at the seijinn encased in the energy prison. The younger of the two Lena's sat back on her heels, regarding the worn-out woman sadly for only a moment before setting herself back to her task.

"_Lena_?" FutureDahlia repeated with a hint of urgency as she peered into the blue sphere. The prisoner within raised her chin a fraction and the light around her flickered briefly before Alice and Di Wan screwed up their faces and sent surges of reinforcing energy into the shimmering blue globe. The occupant craned her neck around calmly to observe this effect before her gaze settled back on her mother. She popped her eyebrows up and shrugged loosely. FutureDahlia straightened a fraction; the only sign of alarm she would display under the circumstances. Behind the prison of energy the young woman's eyes quite literally flashed with blue light of her own. Almost under her breath the time traveler corrected herself;

"...Phoenix,"


	22. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: I don't own it. **

**A/N: Didn't actually get to end this where I planned to, but figured I'd taken long enough to update as it was and should get this in before the long weekend :) As usual, reviews are much appreciated!**

**Chapter 21.**

The two Oslos were once again deep in discussion. What they found to talk about, Cheng wasn't entirely certain, not that he really cared. He was jittery. He needed a fix soon, he was certain of it. He'd already partaken from his syringe earlier that morning but clearly it hadn't been enough. This was odd in and of itself; he was normally able to go without it for a full day before the cravings set in the following morning. Now, however, he felt nauseated and his head pounded. He cleared his throat and frowned, blinking as he tried to clear his head and work through the pain in his head.

He had to compose himself and quickly, though. His Master was keying in his personal access code to the lab; Cheng recognized the pattern of keening, metallic notes. He sniffed, used a handkerchief to swipe across his nose and stowed the hanky into his pocket while straightening his hair with his other hand. As his master walked into the room he was just straightening the last of his pen-like devices into a neat little line.

His Master entered the room with a cold rigidity that made Cheng pause and blink. The bod language was all wrong. He was moving more stiffly than he had for a long time. The scientist had not seen him walking like such an old man in years; not since he had started to regularly drain other seijinns. He had drained a favored human battery to their very last dregs just before they'd left. That should have satisfied his needs for _months_, not days. Cheng would never voice any of this, of course. He would await his Master's orders and he would wait with baited breath to see whether or not Celia's fate hung in the balance of his behavior and obedience today. He would wait and see whether his fate hung in the balance of his Master's mood.

Cheng slowly rose to his feet, moving with particular care as the world see-sawed in front of him but nevertheless managing to remain steady…ish.

"Sit," the blonde man ordered. The scientist obeyed gladly and listened with attention, for Oslo would only provide his instructions once.

"I want you to bring up the files on the work by the scientist Dianne. Lena's Grandmother,"

"You mean…Dahlia's mother?" Cheng asked carefully, unsure as to whether this would anger his master. The man, however, merely smiled.

"Indeed. It would seem we need that distinction at the moment, wouldn't it? Yes. I want all of her work as well as the expansions added to them by Brax. I also want the Weapon refitted to have on hand in case of emergency. Once you are done with that, figure out how to return us. I presume our young friend's chamber is still being held on standby?"

"Yes sir," Cheng said, doing his best to hide his misery. "It is the top secondary priority following maintenance of ship integrity and essential functions,"

His master was well aware of his feelings but it was difficult to predict whether he would relish it cruelly or punish it with equal sadism for "insubordination". Cheng was never sure which he dreaded more, either.

"Very good," His Master praised. He grimaced and put a steadying hand on the chair in front of Cheng's desk, swaying a little.

"Master?" Cheng asked carefully. His Master set his mouth in a thin line and straightened again, his expression hard and his gaze distant as he focused on his Seijinn senses—at least, that was what Cheng thought he was doing. A moment later he took a step back.

"Hurry with what I have ordered and set a course for that sector you and your little rebellion called home when you were a child. Do not approach the block itself. Maintain a cloak,"

"But—""Cheng started. Before he could say another word his Master lashed out sharply to punish him with a telepathic blast that set his nerves ablaze. He toppled over off his chair to grovel at the floor.

"_Do not question me_!" His Master snarled at him. Cheng's heart pounded in his chest as his throat constricted and his muscles tensed for another blast of pain. This was one of the many minefields he navigated in his endeavors to keep him and his remaining loved ones alive: His Master's increasingly unpredictable temper. Normally he was in a good mood following a draining—but this most recent drain didn't appear to have gone well, it had been less than a week and even with the pleasure of his counterpart's company he was having mood swings. He was looming over the younger man with the shadows playing across his face in a vision out of Cheng's regular nightmares. The scientist bowed his head again, avoiding eye contact in a gesture of complete submission.

The Seijinn stood over him another few moments before turning to walk towards the door. At the sounds of his receding footsteps Cheng chanced a glance up in time to see his Master's knees buckle beneath him. The seijinn sagged against the door, panting. Cheng ducked his head back down. He could still hear his Master draw shaky breaths in through his nostrils and clench his fist. He let out a grunt and pushed off the wall.

"Inform my counterpart that…I recommend he return to his plans…with my sincerest assurances. I will prepare a message for you to deliver to him,"

Cheng swallowed and started to slowly push himself off the ground and onto his hands and knees, one hand at a time. With a trembling breath of his own, he nodded.

"Yes, Master," he whispered. The Seijinn was not even listening, however. He had stumbled out of the room with the door hissing behind him. Cheng remained where he was for several moments before getting back to his feet and onto his chair. His hands shook as he reached for the keyboard of his computer. When he found that he still couldn't quite type properly he pulled his hand back and gripped it, waiting patiently for the tremors to stop. Sometimes it took a few minutes after a particularly harsh 'punishment'. He took a deep, calming breath as his hand stilled and then hurried towards his task.

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The rebels watched the green-tinted security feed from the dark-light camera that was fitted in the seijinn-proof cell. The occupant within was pacing restlessly like a caged predator, her long hair swishing with the irritated ticks of her head. In the meeting room of the ship FutureDahlia sat with her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands whilst her comrades sat around her. No one made any remark as the Vector slid in the door.

"…Dahlia?" he began. Both blondes started to turn towards him. What he saw in both copies of the face made him reconsider his initial intentions for seeking the elder Dahlia; the timing was clearly not ideal. He caught Cortez's eye briefly and the Captain leaned his head towards the empty chair next to Mahad. Having been the one they took Prattucci to, the old man knew a modicum of what had happened over the course of the previous, tumultuous evening.

"D'you think she's...you know, changed back?" Mahad asked as he paced towards the screen for the fifth time.

"No," Dahlia (the younger) said simply. Her future counterpart glanced up with a curious tilt of her head. The other rebels also eyed her with silent queries. The blonde shrugged and gestured towards the video-feed. "Look at the body language. It's still the—what do you call it? The Phoenix? It's still in control, isn't it?"

"How is that possible, though?" Wayan asked "I mean, if the Phoenix is a personality caused by her seijinn powers, how is it still in control? There's no light in that cell. None. We re-fitted it after Di Wan managed to break out,"

"It doesn't matter," FutureDahlia reminded them wearily. "Whatever made Phoenix, however she manifests, she's a fracture in my daughter's psyche. I'm certain of that. It's what I always thought and I'm being proved right hourly. Maybe it works differently for seijinns because of their powers, though I'm not sure anyone has ever really known how split personalities work anyway,"

"They haven't," the Vector chirped. It seemed odd that he was one of the more energetic of the assembled group; he had gotten a few hours sleep where others hadn't closed their eyes once. If circumstances hadn't been so dramatic and serious it might have been refreshing. Nevertheless he continued.

"Even Earth psychologists hadn't figured them out from what we can tell. Her case does seem…unusual. That the personalities are not only aware of one another but converse! Well…I don't know what to make of it,"

"Phoenix started out as her imaginary friend," FutureDahlia said with a shake of her head "Before she experienced any serious trauma—she's always been this way. I know she didn't have a lot of company her own age but she was still socialized. She did have some contact with other children and she had family and family friends,"

"Perhaps another reason she is a rather unique case," The Vector agreed. "And your daughter is not the personality type I would expect for a fractured psyche. She isn't as submissive or timid as I would have thought to find her. Frightened and misguided perhaps, but not hysterical or meek,"

"Why hasn't she changed back, though?" Cortez asked. He, too, approached the screen with a perplexed scowl on his face. He leaned against the table with one arm crossed over his chest while the other hand gripped his chin.

"I don't know," FutureDahlia confessed. She put her head in her hands and dug the heels of her palms into her temples with a long-suffering groan. "Phoenix has never stuck around after she's done something like this before. Not once. She can't handle it. She thinks of herself as a protector but she leaves the aftermath to Lena. As far as I know she's never dominated their body for this long before either,"

"And she won't talk to anyone," Mahad added from his perch on arm of the comfy chair his sister had curled up in. "I tried, squirt tried, even Kale and Wayan tried. She either ignored us or tried to attack us. No words, just shrieking,"

"And we still don't know what exactly set her off," Mila concluded.

Cortez straightened and rubbed the back of his neck as he turned away from the video feed.

"More we don't know," he grumbled. "For once I'd like a question we can have _answered_,"

"Well, okay," Wayan, turning to FutureDahlia. "Why Prattucci? We know why she set Cheng up now, but she was _really_ gunning for Prattucci. What did he ever do other than be a pain in the ass?"

The Time Traveler sat back. Her face was drawn and distant. From across the room Alice watched her keenly, but politely. She was observing her but didn't attempt to pry with her powers uninvited. Not this time. Her presence was not usually sensed by non-seijinns and wasn't invasive, but she was aware of Dahlia's history and wouldn't attempt any form of telepathy with her without an invitation. To her surprise, however, her gaze was caught briefly by the elder of the two blondes and Alice received a nigh imperceptible nod as the impressive mental shields lowered selectively. The guardian took the offer and politely brushed the older woman's mind.

_I don't want to tell this story, _FutureDahlia's echoed in her head. Alice felt the heartache, the deep exhaustion in that voice—both physical and emotional—as though it were hers.

The Guardian sat very still in her seat, her eye contact with the elder blonde rebel never wavering as a flood of disjointed images and sounds filled her mind; human memory wasn't always sequential, it didn't read like a story book the way some thought when they heard the term "mind reading". Alice was so adept at what she did because she could—among many things—make sense of the jumble. Moreover she could make sense of it with little effort and was able to relive the memory as with the same ease as she would recall something from her own past yet she never lost herself in the memories. She could do this as quickly as thinking, too, and with a similar level of divided concentration if necessary which at times made her telepathic prying all but undetectable.

_Alice was the time traveler, Dahlia. Her senses were filled with panic and rage when the door burst open to a living room which showed signs of a struggle. Toys, furniture and books were strewn everywhere, a picture hanging on the wall was askew and a window broken. Mahad stood next to her, her own concoction of powerful, gut-wrenching emotion reflected back at her in his face. The two of them exchanged a look and tore into the crime scene. There was no other way to describe it… _

_…__Fear. Panic complete and utter laced with fury and a cold, hard determination. The twinge of an unhealed, deeply rooted pain galvanizing her with a horrified and near-frantic drive that was at once both desperate and dangerous. _

_Never again! Not her too! Not again. Not after what happened to _him_…_

_/…Horror. Pure horror and denial so complete it was paralyzing. Shock overruled everything else and her entire body shook as she held the limp body cradled in her arms—the way she had cradled him as a baby. Her little boy's eyes were closed loosely and his mouth slack, a trail of died foam and vomit leading down the side of his mouth over his small, smooth cheek. His hair—dirty blonde, so like her own—was disheveled and matted. He was cold. He was stiffening even as she held him. She couldn't feel anything—/_

Alice wanted to recoil from this. She knew as the experienced telepath and empath of the extraordinary agony which followed numbing shock. She imagined it might be the emotional equivalent of losing limbs. Once the shock seceded—

_-Loss and pain and fury exploded all at once…_

_…__The deep pain was there, still. It always would be. The fear of having it doubled could and would be crippling if she let it. Instead, like a dangerous, temporary drug her terror dulled that emotional torment to manageable levels and a cold, hard ball of determination settled into her stomach. She and Mahad stood as one. She took out her energy bow, clenching it in her fist. He held his boomerang. There was little room for hate, not for specified and targeted hate. There was only room for fatalistic calm. She would set foot in the house again with her daughter at her side or she'd never set foot anywhere again. There was no middle option. With her free hand she quickly squeezed her husband's. A silent vow to one another. They were going to bring their little girl home come hell or high wind._

_… __She saw Prattucci. Older now; his skin looser and lined with age with grey liberally streaking through the thinning black hair. He backed away from Mahad as the pilot charged forward and seized him by his collar. _

_"__WHERE IS SHE?!" Mahad roared, slamming the man into the wall with a resounding echo. Wanda walked into the large room dragging a younger man by the neck. Dahlia/Alice barely noticed this, however, and was far more focused on the man in front of her as her husband yanked Prattucci forward slightly so that he might slam him again for emphasis "Tell me NOW! WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HER?! Don't you DARE lie to me!"_

_"__I could _make_ him talk," Wanda offered, her tone dark and clipped with barely contained anger. For once, no one chided her. There was no attempt or desire to reign in her more vicious instincts. Prattucci's eyes went wide._

_ "__She was a danger to all of us! Oslo was never going to give up!" He spluttered righteously _

_"__And Brax offered a good price, no doubt!" Wanda spat venomously_

_"__You sold her." Dahlia said. She felt cold. Her voice was dead. It was deadly. _

_"__I…protected us NORMAL citi-!" _

_Mahad's hands snapped around the man's neck with a roar as he nearly cracked the wall with the force of the movement. Wanda and Kale had to jump forward to separate them with a struggle that she didn't participate in. Kale was trying to talk him down. Wanda was reprimanding him that they needed Prattucci to talk before they killed him if they wanted to rescue Lena… _

_…__A dark stairwell. It echoed and she had to step with care. Her heart pounded in her chest but was something to be noted rather than distracted by. She felt emotionally numb, her every move driven by one goal and one only. At her back was her sister, armed with a blaster. Mahad would be making his entrance from the other side…_

_…__An ear-splitting crash as the glass tube showered across the floor, Mahad surging forward to catch their Lena as her legs crumbled beneath her. She didn't remember taking the steps she must have to reach her husband and daughter as a quivering hand caressed the scratched and near-translucent cheek as the child's skin literally crawled as flashes of blue pulsated. A sound behind them made her sweep up and around, activating and firing her bow in one motion…_

_…__She was providing cover fire for Mahad, who was carrying their daughter as they ran— running from enemies on all sides. Lena was jerking in her father's grip, seizing as lumps rippled along the pathway made by her veins and arteries. It was as though her very skin was trying to crawl away whilst blue flares scorched along her body. Blue flashed through the air in front of her sporadically, blinking from the form of a bird-shaped head to a human's to a cloud. It made terrible, pained sounds in their heads through its telepathy. _

_"__What did they do to her?" Mahad demanded of no one in particular, his voice pained and enraged. They burst out through the door above ground, sunlight nearly blinding them…_

_…__Mahad gently laying their little girl down on the small couch in the small ship. _

_"__I'll be right back squirt," he promised their barely-conscious daughter. He didn't head for the cockpit, though and instead gave her a quick, deep kiss. _

_"__Where are you going?" she demanded._

_"__We're leading them away. Wanda's already making herself as big a target as she can, so is Kale in the Mark II. I'm taking the other Escaper. They won't be able to tell who's who once we release the excelerium," he told her, his hands still holding her head as he searched her face hungrily. Her hands came up to cover his. She gave them a brief squeeze and nodded, her half of the desperate, half-baked improvised escape plan immediately falling into place with well-practiced ease._

_"__I'll get Lena out of here. The Vector might be able to help her. Mahad, be _careful_!" she admonished. There was desperation, but also a modicum of relief. The second Worst Thing to ever happen to them had somehow poured fresh plaster onto the widening crack between them. They were working as a team. Seeing each other's face didn't send a stab of pained memories of their features meshed in a ten-year-old's still, cold physiognomy. They were going to get through this now. She grabbed his head as well and pulled him back to her for another quick, desperate kiss that lasted less than a second. They pulled apart almost in unison, her securing their still-jerking, wounded teenager to her cot and him rushing for the exit._

_"__I'll meet you back at home, I promise. I'll see you and Squirt soon!" he told her fervently. _

_ …__He lied. _

Alice blinked several times, giving herself a moment to process the memory. She shook her head slightly and leaned back in her chair, her hands coming up to hover at the sides of her temples near her ears. Lena—the younger, thirteen year old Lena—sat forward in her chair, recognizing the expression as the Guardian slowly re-oriented herself. The redhead blinked a couple more times and then looked directly at the time traveler.

"Prattucci was…something of a catalyst,' Alice told them haltingly, glancing at FutureDahlia every few words. She cleared her throat and her voice gained a little more stability and she continued in a somewhat softened version of her business-like manner.

"They had experienced a…significant loss," she continued diplomatically, "Lena—her Lena's… parents were under a great deal of emotional stress that was impacting their anti-Sphere movement. There was a…lapse of their security. They didn't expect an internal leak and they were only guarding against the Sphere and Oslo. Prattucci had begun to work for a more radical, anti-seijinn faction of the Rebellion. He drugged and kidnapped Lena Dianne and delivered her to a man named Brax,"

"Brax?" Vector asked sharply.

"You've heard of him?" Alice enquired politely.

"Yes! He is—or was a colleague of Victoria and Dianne's. He left Oxford years ago, though. He was starting to be a bit of a problem for the University," The Vector told them.

"He was getting too anti-seijinn," FutureDahlia finished for them. Alice nodded.

"I've heard of him before," she told the rebels briefly. "But…he—Brax—becomes very dangerous. He experimented on their Lena. Tortured her. He was well hidden—even lied to Prattucci so that when they extracted the information from him it was incorrect. It took them nearly two weeks to find her, but they weren't the only ones looking. Oslo had gotten wind of it. Her parents got there only hours before the Sphere. They split up in order to escape the Sphere and arranged a meeting place. Mahad…"

Alice trailed off and looked at her red-clad friend. The pilot met her gaze and she watched as expectation morphed into comprehension and discomfort. He blinked several times, absorbing the news and then with impressive calm turned to the blonde time traveler.

"I'm never seen again, am I?" he asked her gently. His Dahlia's head snapped up at his words. She felt that she should have predicted this, it wasn't entirely surprising, but was nevertheless still awkward to hear.

"No," FutureDahlia whispered, feeling lost in the achingly familiar blue of his eyes. Her eyes were misting with unshed tears. She sniffed and looked away with a tight swallow and a shaky breath. "No you're not. I still don't know what happened. Just like with Marcus. Look, what more do you want to know? It gets just about as bad as it could, we've already covered that,"

"Yeah, guys, maybe we should get back to what we're going to do?" Wayan said, noticing the unnerving defeat in the time traveler and offering her a semi-saving throw. He gestured towards the security feed. "Regardless of what's happened we need to figure out how to proceed,"

"Can she even stay here?" Alice asked. Her foray into the teenager's history had left her nervous about the Phoenix's intentions. "If her triggers are here, is it a good idea?"

"Not really, but there aren't many good ideas left," FutureDahlia mumbled.

"There has to be some kind of solution," Mahad said. "I mean, we can keep her contained—"

"I don't like the idea of more excelerium at the moment," The Vector piped up. "Not right at the moment. I've never seen a reaction like the one she had,"

"But what exactly are we supposed to do?" Dahlia asked. "Prattucci's not the only one asking questions any more. We've told who we think can handle it, but really…"

"We have to tell them," Cortez interrupted decisively. "No more secrets. We're not the Sphere. That's our first step. People need to know and they need to know why we have to keep this contained. The people here should all know something about secrets after all. We've been doing them an injustice so far. Everyone go start talking, get everyone up to speed on the general stuff. Dianne isn't going anywhere right now and if she were there's not much we can do to stop her anyway,"

There was a pause as everyone allowed the order to sink in. They each nodded to their captain in agreement. Alice clasped her hands together and stood. She took a deep breath.

"Captain," she started and paused, her request for permission evident. Cortez gestured for her to continue.

"As much as I hate to leave a job half-done, I need to leave Prattucci in the capable hands of your seijinns. If I'm gone much longer there will be questions asked," Alice said reluctantly. She was very much telling the truth, but she was also relieved for the excuse to gain a little space from the situation. Even if said space was only temporary.

"I can walk you to your ship on my way to talk to people," Wayan offered. The Guardian nodded cordially, suppressing a small smile that a few of the rebels noted as the pair made their quiet exit. Mahad followed shortly along with the twenty-something Dahlia; both were eager to get out of the room following yet another unpleasant revelation about their futures. Cortez set his mouth and followed suit.

"If you'll excuse me, I have some negotiating of my own," the captain half-growled as he stalked out, leaving the time traveler with the Farrell seijinns and the Vector.

"Skyland…_Prattucci_," FutureDahlia grumbled after the door closed behind the captain, irritated at the reminder that he needed any assistance from her.

"I could try and discern what has been done to him…"Mila started to offer.

"No, Mom," Lena pleaded as she touched her mother's arm imploringly, "I can do it. Until we've figured out what's going on with your powers…"

"Yeah," Mahad seconded. "You should get some rest, Mom,"

"Children, really—"Their mother started.

"No," FutureDahlia cut in. "Mila, rest. With what we know about what happens, the Vector might be able to help you but in the meantime…don't push yourself too much,"

Mila regarded the other mother, noting the signs of exhaustion and wear in the blonde.

"You could probably follow your own advice," she said kindly. The time traveler managed a cheerless smile and then sighed.

"Perhaps," she agreed "But not now. The quickest way to fix Prattucci is to find out what my daughter did to him. Since she doesn't seem interested in talking to anyone else, it will have to be me,"

"And what if she doesn't want to talk to you, either?" Cortez asked. FutureDahlia gave him a tired, humorless smirk.

"I'm her mother. She doesn't get a vote on this. If you'll excuse me," She slipped out through the door, giving her younger self a pat on the shoulder as she went. The Vector started to get up and made as though to beckon after her and then seemed to struggle with himself. He visibly changed his mind twice before steeling up his courage and hurrying after her.

"Dahlia!" He called as they walked out onto the deck of the Saint Nazaire.

"Kale's dead," FutureDahlia said woodenly without turning around. "Isn't he? Our Kale. The one from my time. He didn't make it, did he?"

The Vector stopped in his tracks and blinked, stunned.

"You…how did…?" he stammered as he hurried forward in a hobbling gait to try and comfort her.

"It wasn't hard to guess," she told him distantly, staring blankly ahead of her. They paused at the little docking bridge and she leaned against the railing for a moment. She heaved a long sigh and massaged her temples with one hand.

"Are you…alright?" The Vector asked, rubbing her back comfortingly. The Time traveler let out a short, nigh-hysterical laugh and gripped the railing with whitening knuckles. She gave the old man a look he would not soon forget before turning away.

"Not really,"

8888888

The seijinn still debating whether to think of herself as Wanda or Di Wan sat at the small table in her 'room'. In her fingers she idly twirled a small, round playing piece from the game board. She examined the small carved circle without really caring what it looked like. She smiled softly as she turned it over in her fingers, remembering a different time with a different playing piece…

/

_"__Dahli?" Wanda asked as she walked into the room they shared. She found her four year old sister sitting on the floor with blocks strewn around her. Her little hands were balled into fists and her face was squished in effort and concentration. _

_"__What are you doing?" _

_"__I'm trying to do the magic!"_

_"__Magic?" Wanda asked, befuddled. "What are you talking about?"_

_"__The magic! The magic you do with the blue sparkles with the floating!" the little girl told her, as though it were obvious. _

_"__You mean…my powers? Those aren't magic, silly!" Wanda said. She put her backpack down on her bed and sat down in front of the little girl. She smiled and lifted her hand, a soft blue glow surrounding her fingers. In response to her telekentic beckoning the set of game pieces on the board bobbed into the air whimsically. With a twiddle of her fingers she manipulated the little circles of wood to make simple dancing shapes in the air. She watched her little sister's face expectantly; this trick always made her smile. The child, however, seemed to wilt. _

_"__When will I be big enough to do that?" she asked, watching the pieces move wistfully. _

_"__It's not about being big, Dahli," Wanda told her. _

_"__So…I won't be able to do work with you and mummy?" she asked sadly. Wanda blinked._

_ "__Work? Dahli, I've only been helping mummy work for a week or two. I'm just floating things with different lightbulbs. It isn't anything very exciting," _

_"__But it's _important_! Mummy's work is important and you're helping her, so your work is important too! I want to help too!" the toddler insisted. _

_"__Dahli…"_

_"__And if I can make things move, I can play sey-jey games too!"_

_"__Seijinn," Wanda corrected with a smile. "And you don't need powers for us to play. We play every day," _

_"__But I want to do something for big girls! I want to be a sey-jay too! I want to be able to play the round men!" the little girl insisted._

_"__Dahli…" Wanda started with a groan before something occurred to her. "What if we played with the round men anyway?"_

_"__But you need powers," little Dahlia pouted sadly. _

_"__No you don't, silly," Wanda chided her with a laugh, ruffling her hair fondly. "Most people don't play with powers. But I don't know…it's really a game for big kids. I don't know if you're ready for it…there are a lot of rules,"_

_"__I'm big enough! I can learn! I want to learn!" Little Dahlia exclaimed excitedly. With a grin Wanda retrieved the board and set on the floor between their beds. She picked up two of the playing pieces: one black, one white._

_"__First," she said "You need to pick a color," _

/

The sound of someone climbing the stairs to her little room snapped Wanda out of her reverie. She rose from her seat on the cot in one swift motion as she squared herself with the door as it opened. The moment the large, red-headed man walked in a long, dry smirk wound across her lips.

"Well, well, well," Di Wan sighed smugly as Cortez came to stand in front of her with his feet wide and his arms crossed over his chest. The seijinn in response settled herself into her chair, crossing her legs and turning towards him to sit on the diagonal of the chair as she looped her elbow over the back and threaded her fingers together. She raised her eyebrows at him.

"This must be a special occasion," she said pointedly. The Captain rolled his eyes and let out a growling sigh.

"What d'ye want to know?" He demanded through his teeth.

"I beg your pardon?" She asked carefully. She would have to tread carefully with this one, she knew. They had been dancing around each other for years. She had had more direct contact with the Farrell brats, but she and Cortez had been patching into each others' radios since she ascended to her position nearly four years ago. She had put several major dents in his little operation before Lena and Mahad had spelled out her downfall. She had planned to eventually turn her cat-and-mouse game on the gamey ginger pest eventually and he knew it. It galled him to have to tell her anything, she knew.

"Ye've been cooperating and we could use some information ourselves. A trade," Cortez offered.

"Quid pro quo?'

"Not exactly,"

"Oh please, Cortez. What exactly do you think you'll do? I _know_ you. You're toothless. You and your little Rebellion,"

"Not so 'little' anymore," Cortez retorted "And would ye like another dose of excelerium, perhaps? How's that fer yer 'teeth'?"

"You got the drop on me _once_,"

"A week, on average. For about a year," the Captain pointed out smugly. Di Wan jumped to her feet.

"I was on my way to dismantling your little operation," she snapped.

"_Was_," Cortez smirked.

"Gloating doesn't suit 'noble heroes',"

"It suited Sphere Sycophants,"

"But I'm the villain in your little narrative," Di Wan pointed out innocently "I thought it was _supposed_ to suit me,"

"Aye, you _were_ villainous," Cortez snarled, a number of her crimes coming to mind quickly.

"And you were useless," Di Wan sneered at him. "Until your precious little brats were dropped into your lap by their Prodigal Mother. Until they came around it was almost _easy_,"

"If it was so easy why did you never manage to snuff us out in seventeen years?"

"You had your ups and downs," The Seijinn grudgingly allowed before jabbing "No doubt my shared genes helped you considerably,"

"You think highly of yourself,"

"I reached one of the highest echelons in the Guardianship before I was legal tavern age," Di Wan hissed at him as she shouldered her way into his personal space. He was taller than she was by at least half a head, but he didn't manage to tower over her.

"And where are you now at twenty six?" he returned. She went white with fury and stalked away as far as the small room would let her.

"Who was the seijinn?" she practically snapped at him with her back turned. "Why was she after Dahlia?"

"Do you care?" Cortez asked.

"I broke out of your little house arrest to go to her rescue. What do you think?"

"How _did_ you do that?" The Captain demanded "Moreover, how did you know?"

"Alice, if you must know," Di Wan replied with exasperation. "She got frightened. She contacted me telepathically and showed me that she and Dahlia were in trouble. I was obviously closer than your precious Lena so off I went. Getting out of your 'house arrest' was child's play. Who was that seijinn?"

"You really expect me to believe that you care about Dahlia that much?"

"I don't really care what you believe. Who is that seijinn?"

"After everything you've done you want us to trust you? You really expect me to believe that you want to join us now?"

"You? Please! You think highly of yourself. I'm no Rebel. I'll tell you what I do want, though. I have a list. Your turn. _Who was that seijinn_?"

Cortez narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw. A muscle popped and a vein in his temple throbbed almost visibly.

"You won't believe me,"

"You don't believe _me_. We're even,"

"Alright then. She's your time-travelling niece from the future," Cortez informed her shortly.

Di Wan blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. She moistened her lips and chewed on the inside of her cheek as she debated whether or not to accept his answer to her persistent query. Finally she took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Allrriigghht," she said slowly, dragging out the word with mild suspicion before grudgingly conceding, "I have to admit…that…answers a few things. A _few_,"

"Now," Cortez said firmly. "What exactly d'ye think is going to convince us to keep protecting you?"

"_Protecting_ me?" Di Wan flared.

"_Aye_," the Captain returned "Ye made a lot of enemies. Including us. Including our friends. Ye made a lot of people very unhappy and ruined more 'un a few lives. So far we haven't told anyone where you are or that yer even alive. We can't do that forever ye know,"

"I-I…" the Guardian stammered. How this had failed to occur to her she wasn't entirely sure. "I'm your right hand lieutenant's—"

"Don't you _dare_ try that one," Cortez warned her coldly. The Guardian's mouth closed with an audible 'snap'.

"Fine," she replied tersely. "Our relationship can be symbiotic. You keep me out of the hands of your 'friends' and I can help you,"

"And what guarantees would we have to trust you with?" Cortez asked. He stepped back to perch on the desk in the room, keeping his arms tightly crossed.

"I don't _trust_ you," Di Wan retorted as she in turn stepped back a few paces to lean against the opposite wall. She crossed her arms over her own chest to mirror his body language. "You don't see me complaining,"

"No, I _hear_ you complain a _lot_,"

"Oh for Skyland's sake!" The seijinn growled in irritation. "I will help you take out some of the other Guardians!...Provided I can dispatch them myself. I get my own back for past history and you get to remove some of the more dangerous opponents to your 'Big' Rebellion,"

Cortez's scowl deepened and his eyes narrowed in further suspicion.

"And how do I know you wouldn't simply use us to get rid of your competition? What would stop you from double crossing us after you had enough people crossed off your list? Even better, what's to stop you from straight up selling us out?"

The Guardian gave him a look before she burst into sharp, cold laughter.

"Are you serious?" She asked him. When he blinked and tilted his head to the side slightly with incomprehension she snorted. "Do you really think I'm going to double cross the _child_ who was able to defeat my master and destroy the Sphere's _flagship_ before she so much as reached adolescence? And pull this one her while she's _in_ the hormonal throws of puberty, no less? I don't think so. I'm done with being her telekinetic punching bag,"

"And just when did you give up on that particular obsession?"

"After I heard about the Monolith, I believe," she told him slowly with a mocking pause for "deliberation" as she spoke. She snorted again and shrugged. "Besides, when my memory started to return so did the memories of the increase in bruised bones I'd started getting following those last few encounters. Now. My turn. How do you keep landing yourself with these seijinns? There are only three people who can best me in seijinn skill and you have two of them living under your roof. Now there are four and you have three of them. That…teenager…if you're telling the truth, she's not _just_ a time traveler—she's a ticking time bomb. Even if you're spinning a tale, she's dangerous. Far more dangerous than you've figured out yet,"

"Don't bet on it. And you would know this, how? Exactly?"

"Unlike you, I know what I'm doing when it comes to seijinns. An unstable mind attached to power is a powder keg. The greater the power, the greater the explosion,"

"Aye…and she is powerful,"

"More powerful than me," Di Wan admitted reluctantly. At the Captain's eye roll she bridled. "Oh don't give me that look! There are only three—_perhaps_ four seijinns in Skyland who are my superiors in skill. _You_ just happen to have met all of them,"

"Whatever you say,"

"You seem to have a short memory!" She snapped again.

"And do ye really want to be reminding me right now?" Cortez challenged.

"We're not getting anywhere like this. Do we have a deal? My information for your so-called 'protection'?"

Cortez's eye narrowed as he stared her down. Neither of them blinked, neither of them flinched. Slowly Cortez extended his hand towards her for a handshake, the palm flat, fingers rigidly pressed together, thumb practically at a right angle. With matching speed and tension Di Wan accepted it. They pumped their joined hands twice, both eager to break the physical contact. Both crossed their arms over their chests tightly and continued to stare one another down.

"Alright," Cortez growled. "Ye can start now. Just how aggressive can telepathy be?"

"Aggressive," Di Wan told him, speaking slowly and loudly as though she were talking to a particularly young or slow child. "But it isn't used often. You need to be a very powerful seijinn to manipulate a mind and it can be a strain. Many find it uncomfortable. A number of those who don't have that issue turn out like Shinsiki,"

"Or Oslo," Cortez muttered darkly. Di Wan opened her mouth to defend her former master but then seemed to think better of it. She knew exactly the incident he'd thought of and couldn't think of a good counter. Besides, they didn't need to know that she had been privy to the attempt on Dahlia's mind, much less present when it occurred on Oslo's end. She clenched her teeth and paced to the window. She gazed out of it without really looking at the scenery and changed the subject.

"Will my sister be coming by?" She inquired. She heard Cortez make a noise behind her.

"That will be up to her," the Rebel Captain growled. He turned on his heel and marched to the door.

"You're not making this alliance very appealing, you know," Di Wan remarked to his back.

"You don't make an appealing partner," he snapped back. A beat later, almost as an after thought he added over his shoulder in a milder tone "There will be some food in the square tonight for a town meeting. You're not going anywhere without an escort but you can come or stay. Your choice. You will be mentioned,"

"Is that an invitation?" she asked, guarded as she followed him to the door and watched the large redhead start down the wooden steps. The guard at her door—a tall blonde man she vaguely remembered—glared daggers at her but made no move to manhandle or stop her.

"It means you have a handler and you're not to leave their sight," Cortez informed her without so much as pausing his descent.

Di Wan glanced over at the large man, belatedly recognizing the gladiator, Kale. The large man was glaring at her, his face practically contorted with the effort of channeling as much hate as possible into the expression. The ex-guardian straightened, raising her chin in a habitual mannerism and squaring her shoulders, her own eyes flashing. She would not show fear to him. Fear was the enemy. Fear was weakness. She did not reach the position she had bragged about to Cortez by surrendering to weakness when confronted with a big man with a grudge. She stepped past him and back into her room with the Gladiator's death-glare following her. This deal she was striking with the pirates was becoming less appealing by the minute.

She closed the door and took up a pace across the short distance of the cozy cell, mulling over her options. She hadn't lied to the redhead. Her options with the Sphere were not exactly the most appealing and her ever lessening ability to oppose the seijinn brat was alarming and disturbing to her. And yet…

She didn't fancy living her life as a prisoner, either. Perhaps she could escape. There might be ways to ingratiate herself with some of her former comrades. Or she could simply forge a new identity for herself. Surely she couldn't be as option-less as she thought.

The sound of a board creaking behind her made Di Wan stop and roll her eyes.

"Forget something, did you…" She drawled as she turned around. The words died on her lips when she saw the woman entering her room. She took an involuntary step back.

The resemblance between the woman in front of her and the mother she had tried to forget was remarkable. The same shade of blonde hair—even kept at a similar length—the same shape of face, same build…the eyes she had inherited from their father according to anecdotal evidence, but the effect was striking all the same. The former guardian stared openly. So this was what Dahlia would look like in two decades. It looked like those two decades had not been kind to her.

The time traveler lingered at the threshold of the door. She glanced over her shoulder, as though she felt she should be somewhere else, but then seemed to decide that she was alright where she was-for the moment at least. Unlike the Guardian's previous guests, her brown gaze lacked the suspicion and hostility she had come to expect. Her drawn, tired face held a nostalgia, perhaps even a certain affection—no, definitely affection. She smiled at Wanda tiredly.

"Mind if I come in?" she asked.


	23. Chapter 23

**AN: Ohhh it feels so good to be able to write again! Finally! So happy holidays to everyone still sticking with me in spite of these long hiatuses! You are all wonderful! Especially my loyal reviewer, ASingleMind!**

**A couple of very minor notes: I'm going to be fudging/guestimating times here. The show takes place in 2251 and I'm going with the events taking place over the course of a year so I'm going to pretend they had New Year's shortly before Karzem, so that it went down in 2252. It really affects very little apart from date-notes but there it is. **

**Well anyways, here we go!**

**Chapter 22**

_Year 2252, two weeks after the Fall of Karzem_

_Pain. Pain everywhere. It was the first thing she was aware of. There was sharp pain, burning pain and dull pain all at once. She breathed in sharply and whimpered. _

_She whimpered. Yes, that was the sound. Through the high pitched whine that reverberated through her head sharp sounds managed to puncture through, echoing in the haze. There was bustling in the background and an irritating, incessant beeping that suddenly seemed incredibly loud to her. Blinding light seared her eyes when she opened them and she shied away from it, lolling her head to the side and trying to move. Another sound escaped her at discovering something attached to her, something inside the top of her hand. A tight ball of panic riled in her gut, exploding into her system when someone's hands prevented her from sitting up. She fought against the hands and the blurred, unfocused faces that loomed over her. There were voices attached to those faces, voices which were trying to comfort and reassure even as they tried to keep her restrained. _

_"__tt…ight…it's…alr.i….know…" the voices said over one another. She couldn't make them out. She had to get out, she had to run, she had to find safety she had to—_

_"__Easy now, easy! For heaven's sake, _calm down!_" One of the voices—clearer and more decisive than the others— ordered. A woman's voice. The faces were starting to come into focus. One who was foremost was the owner of the authoritative voice; a no-nonsense woman in her forties with golden brown skin, brown eyes and greying black hair. __There we are, that's more like it. You've been unconscious for several days. I promise you that you are alright, you are safe. So please, just try and get your breath again. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Alright? There you are? Good. Now, my name is Victoria," the woman said, her elegantly accented voice soothing._

_"__V-Victoria," She repeated, her heart starting to slow from the frantic rabbit-sprint it had been imitating._

_"__That's right," Victoria affirmed. "I'm Victoria. Now what's your name?"_

_"__I…" She started, panic starting to rise again as she stalled on the answer. "I…I don't know…I don't know!"_

Year 2252, 7 months after the Fall of Karzem

_The time traveler lingered at the threshold of the door. Unlike the Guardian's previous guests, her brown gaze lacked the suspicion and hostility she had come to expect. Her drawn, tired face held a nostalgia, perhaps even a certain affection—no, definitely affection. She smiled at Wanda tiredly._

_"__Mind if I come in?" she asked._

Di Wan blinked. She moved warily, swaying her weight from one foot to the other as she looked at the woman in the doorway. She jerked her head in agreement and reluctant invitation. The older blonde woman closed the door behind her with a pained, grateful smile at the man outside. She paused a moment, looking at a point on the floor without quite seeing it as she took a moment. What she was taking a moment for, Di Wan didn't know but she took the opportunity to study her.

The woman in front of her was in her forties, perhaps early forties but recent years had not been kind to her. She was thin. Her dark blonde hair was lank and limp, her cheeks hollowed; she'd been partially starved recently. The dark circles beneath her eyes and the pallor of her skin indicated poor rest as well, perhaps even recent illness or something. When she reached for the desk to perch on it her movements were stiff and tired; she chose the desk because it wasn't a great distance to bend down. Di Wan understood immediately that she was uncertain that she would be able to stand again.

When this weary woman looked up at Di Wan with those sad, old brown eyes the Guardian felt a strange discomfort deep in her gut.

"It's good to see you, Wanda," FutureDahlia said with a smile as sad as her eyes. This further unsettled the seijinn. Neither moved towards one another, the short space between them a chasm of disjointed time and perspective. The older woman—a time traveler it seemed—shook her head.

"I know, it's really, _really_ weird," she said with a humorless laugh.

"A little," Di Wan agreed. "So…what they were telling me _is _true,"

"You doubted it?" FutureDahlia asked, vaguely amused.

"Strangely enough a few things make sense with that explanation but-"

"You were waiting for more proof to adapt an answer," FutureDahlia corrected her with a knowing raised eyebrow. This briefly threw Di Wan off and she blinked several times, struggling to fight through her surprise and unease to regain her verbal footing.

"I—"

"Wanda, it's me. I know you. I know you don't really know me right now, but I know _you_. Relax,"

"That's a little difficult in the circumstances," Di Wan replied.

"Fair enough," the time traveler agreed. She smiled ironically. "Is it strange to hear that I've missed you?"

"A little," Di Wan said woodenly. She didn't add that it also felt strangely…nice. Instead, she frowned."The tale they told me about you is...interesting. To say the least. I have to admit, we live in interesting times but-"

"But no one in their right mind wouldn't want some kind of proof?" FutureDahlia finished for her. She let out a single, breathy chuckle. "Yes, I can definitely see that. Let's see, what could I do to give you some proof?"

The seijinn shrugged and shook her head, uncertain herself. The supposed time-traveller paused a moment and drummed her fingers on the edge of the desk before crossing her arms over her chest.

"Not now, and not even that soon, I'm going to be frightened. Very frightened. And vulnerable. And the people that I would normally trust first will be...struggling. I won't feel able to go to them and you'll find me and convince me to tell you what I'm freaking out about. And you will do that by telling me a story,"

"Alright," Di Wan said guardedly. FutureDahlia tilted her head towards the seijinn a little.

"When you first arrived at the Academy, Oslo showed you a certain amount of favoritism. He checked in on you, asked about you. He wasn't the Head Guardian yet, but he was high up. This didn't go down well with Oslo's previous favorite: A boy named Kyle, who was three years older than you. Kyle had a small group of his own and they decided to keep you out of Kyle's limelight. They tormented you: called you names, sabotaged your books, even pulled your hair and manipulated the situation so that instructors didn't notice. They also kept you from making friends by any way they could. You, on the other hand, didn't care. You were still recovering from the loss of me and mum, really still in shock and you didn't want any friends. You didn't want anyone to see you weak, didn't want anyone else who could be taken away from you. All they did was annoy you, but you couldn't muster up enough emotion even to be all that hurt by their taunts and you never talked except to answer a direct question from a Guardian,"

Di Wan tensed, but largely maintained her neutral expression. She could still remember what Kyle looked like: not particularly big, but tall for his age and lanky, agile. He'd had dark hair that was just short enough to comply with the Academy regulations and he had taken great pains with it. His nose had been oddly short. He had not been unattractive or without charm and wit, both of which he had used to his advantage when they were young. He had changed a great deal as he aged, however. She had personally assigned him to the mission which had left him crippled and relegated to office work. Noting that her words were clearly ringing a bell, FutureDahlia continued.

"He didn't like that he wasn't getting the reaction he wanted, or that you figured out ways around his sabotaging. He didn't like that you got to be pretty good at evading him and didn't seem to do it out of fear, either. So, he decided to change tactics. He found out where you were from, what had happened to mum and what everyone thought had happened to me. He managed to corner you with some of his group. He planned to make you fear him no matter what it took. He backed you up against the edge of the block and even challenged you to a seijinn fight. When you tried to get out, some of his friends prevented it. For the first time, you actually _were_ scared of them,"

Oh, how Di Wan remembered that day. It was such a pleasant memory: Being ten, maybe eleven years old and backed up against the edge of the ground, half a dozen older children circled around her with glowing hands and smirks.

"But then Kyle made a mistake. He talked about me. He made fun of you, and he made fun of me and mum and what happened to us. That was the first time since you got to the Academy that you really felt something...and you felt angry. You saw red and attacked him. You were eleven and half-trained, but you were still a match for him. His friends were too shocked at first to help him and when they did it took half of them to take you on, and even after they intervened you broke three of Kyle's ribs by blasting him into the side of a concrete building and then kept blasting at him,"

She had done more than that, Di Wan remembered. She had terrified him. She remembered how she could practically sense the desperation radiating from him even though empathy had always been the seijinn talent she essentially didn't possess; her affinity for it was so low.

"The only person you ever told that story to," FutureDahlia continued, "Was Oslo. You told him that you learned how powerful and how useful hating someone could be then, and how much you saw Kyle was willing to fight to be Oslo's. Especially given that, after the incident, you took over his little gang and turned the tables on him. You had him persecuted until he graduated—without honors or distinction. When you found out that he was Oslo's favourite before you, you realized how important it was that he had taken an interest in you. Then you realized just how much you wanted to overtake Kyle and serve Oslo in his place. But what you also never told Oslo, was that if Kyle had never brought me up, things might have turned out differently. That it was when he jeered about how I must have cried like a baby before they killed me that you saw red. That you never spoke of me again after that and you made certain that no one else ever did either. But you never forgot that you were able to hate someone because of what they said about me. Even when I was dead, you were looking out for me,"

Di Wan couldn't find the words to respond to that tale immediately. The story was true, every word. What she doubted even the older woman knew, however, was that she had also done her best to erase her family from her memory. She had recognized the potential weakness they were, even when they were dead. _That _was why she had forbidden any mention of her past; it was as much out of the desire to forget for the sake of her future as much as out of the desire to keep the pain away. Eventually it had worked; she had stopped thinking about the little sister she had lost and found the focus she had needed and wanted. The Sphere, Oslo and her own impressive success became her world for the next fifteen years of her life. She had never questioned the story the Sphere had told her about her rescue from Oxford and had never researched it to look for holes in the story. She had certainly never questioned Oslo's blunt version of events.

The Guardian cleared her throat and shifted her weight in discomfort. Her emotional walls slammed back up and she gave the blonde woman claiming to be her sister a withering look. Her tone sharpened into a bitter drawl as she attempted to regain the upperhand in the conversation.

"Forgive me if this is forward but I've just played a round of verbal tennis with a maniac, idiotic, hot-head so I'd rather get straight to a point. Why are you _here_?"

FutureDahlia's sad smile remained and she shrugged, apparently un-phased by the curt brush-off.

"Nostalgia. I'm about to go talk to my rebellious teenager—One of them, at least—and try and fix the latest mess. It's my life. I was on my way when I couldn't help but think that I couldn't stop her from changing my past,"

"I would imagine you would remember meeting _her _ahead of time," Di Wan agreed.

"Yes, and that didn't happen in my timeline, trust me. I just…well I guess I wanted to make sure that she didn't change everything,"

"What is that supposed to mean, exactly?"

"It means that…look," FutureDahlia started "If I know you, you're second-guessing this little arrangement that you just brokered with Cortez,"

Di Wan blinked, startled. This made the time traveler chuckle.

"I know you, remember?" she reminded the former guardian. She walked towards her, prompting Di Wan to back up a couple of steps. "Am I wrong or did you and Cortez just strike a deal that you're not liking?"

Di Wan set her mouth stubbornly, remaining silent. The time traveller chuckled weakly and shook her head.

"I know. You're not gonna tell me. Just think about it, okay?" she asked the seijinn.

"That can't be the only reason that you're here," Di Wan stated carefully.

"You don't need to be so suspicious," Dahlia assured her with a weary half-smile. "I really just...missed you. I haven't seen you in a long time and...well. It's good to have you around,"

Di Wan still said nothing, unable to find the words and unable to look away from her sister's tired, yet strangely affectionate eyes. They were so different from the way their younger counterparts looked at her. FutureDahlia sighed wistfully.

"Well, I'll leave you to it," she said. She pushed off the desk and turned towards the door. She didn't make a full step before her knees sagged beneath her and she had to catch herself on the wall. Di Wan stepped forward with an outstretched arm before even realizing what she was doing. She blinked at the hand reaching for the older woman and snatched it back, as though afraid she might have been caught in the helpful, concerned impulse and clasped both hands behind her arrow-straight back in a familiar, trained mannerism. Nonetheless, in spite of her guarded actions, she couldn't keep the concern out of her voice as she asked,

"Are you...alright?"

"Fine...I'm-I'm _fine_," FutureDahlia insisted even while keeping her back to the other woman. She clutched at the wall and shook, belying her assurances significantly "I'm just-just tired. That's all,"

"Of that I have no doubt, but that's not it," The seijinn stated, taking a tentative step forward and cautiously releasing her tightly clasped fingers.

"It's nothing. I...I just need to see my daughter. I'm fine. Please," she said quietly. She was struggling to avoid stuttering and her arm shook. As though realizing that she hadn't looked Di Wan in the eye while claiming to be "fine", she glanced over her shoulder with a small, shaky smile.

"It _is _good to see you again, Wanda," she said fervently "I know you're scared. Hell, _I'm_ scared. _Both _me's are scared. But I've really missed you. Even if you are a bit...a bit of a _Guardian _sometimes. Please, think about Cortez's deal,"

The woman turned then and walked out, her gait still stiff and careful. Di Wan watched her close the door behind herself. The seijinn remained where she stood for several long moments before moving to the desk and sliding onto the chair, left with a great deal to think about.

Several minutes later she knocked on the closed door. The sound was met with a confused silence.

"While I realize that this is hardly the conventional arrangement, do open the door," she drawled. The Gladiator practically slammed it open.

"What?" He demanded. The seijinn opened her mouth for a snappy retort and then closed it, taking a single, deep breath to control herself. It was depressing to think how far she had fallen; she had watched this man rip other gladiators' apart in the arena. She had ordered him around without a second thought, had offered him the deal of ten victories in exchange for his freedom. She had not intended to live up to her end of the bargain if he had continued with his high popularity. Had he been injured, but not killled, then she would have released him back to his family's pathetic farm. She knew better than to tell him any of that, however.

"Your Master-"

"I don't have _Masters_ anymore," Kale snapped at her. Di Wan rolled her eyes.

"Your _Captain_, then," she corrected in a groan "Mentioned something about food? Would you be interested in any of it?"

Kale stared down at her and crossed his arms over his heavily muscled chest. If looks could kill...well, clearly his were ineffective weapons. He'd given her nothing but hateful glares and she was still standig. Honestly, it had merely been a half dozen or so rounds of homicidal death-matches. He'd only had to kill seven people or so. The only major injuries he had suffered to her knowledge had been a bruised rib and a dislocated hip. The hip had been fixed quickly and his rib hadn't prevented him from defeating two opponents. Besides, he seemed happy enough with his new little friends in the rebellion. Why exactly he was still complaining, she didn't know. The former Gladiator continued to glare at her. She didn't back down and outwardly showed no signs that it did anything more that irritate her.

Inwardly, however, she was starting to have doubts. The memories her second visitor had awakened were fresh in her memory. She thought about that little girl so long ago...the little girl who had been no angel, but who _had_ loved her family. The child who hadn't wanted to leave her home when she was taken from it. The one who had hated someone making fun of her sister's death enough to destroy him. She could tell herself that little Wanda had died the day that Oxford was attacked, but that really wasn't true. She had let Wanda go and Wanda had left very willingly. Wanda had been ineffective. She hadn't saved her family, hadn't made any difference and hadn't been someone Kyle left alone, certainly not someone he ever would have feared. Wanda was unlikely to have ever risen as high as Di Wan had, would not likely have had much of a life within the Sphere. But Di Wan no longer had a life and never would. Wanda, however, might have a chance at a life here. Perhaps she should take it and make the reverse decision that she had made so very long ago. It was likely her only chance.

The transition would not be easy.

"I don't suppose there's any chance of bygones being bygones?" She asked him dryly. Kale's expression darkened further. That was a feat. She cocked an eyebrow once "Somehow I didn't think so,"

"The first sign," Kale growled at her, holding up a threatening finger in her face. "The _first_ _sign_ of you double crossing us, and it won't be Lena you have to worry about. You of _all_ people should know just how good I am at killing people,"

Di Wan—No. She decided once and for all. No she, too, would have to start thinking of herself as Wanda if she ever wanted it to catch. _Wanda _held his gaze unflinchingly. He was right, she mused. She did know exactly how vicious a killer the giant could be. She could too, of course, but she was going to be abstaining from that. She narrowed her eyes.

"I. Apologise," she stated, punctuating both words clearly before sighing and reciting in a monotone: "For what I did to you. It may not be enough, but I will endeavour to make it up to you and the rebels. It will never be enough, I realize that, but can we just get started?"

Kale was practically growling. Like a dog—No! Wanda mentally chided herself. She had to stop that. Somehow, she would have to resist the temptation to insult them and mentally degrade them. Somehow. If she was to have any chance, she would have to—at the very least—not give them a reason to attack her. Making any friends amongst her former enemies would take a very long time, if it ever happened. It was a skill that she would have to re-learn…or was it learn? Had she ever had that skill? There hadn't been very many children their age at Oxford. Those who had cohabitated hadn't exactly had a choice in their "friends": it was play with them or play alone. Even then her sister had been her most regular playmate. And now she was getting distracted herself. Skyland, she needed to find something to get out of her own head! This was part of the reason she had risen so high: she thrived on what she called focus. Others had made the mistake of deeming it 'obsession' within her earshot.

The gladiator shuffled partway to the side to let her through, enough for her to walk out the door, but not without brushing him. When she did move by with an eye roll he grabbed her bicep.

"At the _first sign_," he repeated menacingly.

"_Understood_," she replied snippily as she yanked her arm out of his grip and headed off down the stairs. He followed a pace and a half behind her.

88888888888

Dahlia—the time traveller, Dahlia—approached the room where her daughter was being held to find Wayan guarding the door. She couldn't help but smile. He'd always had that effect on her: a calming, easy-going presence that out her at ease. They'd never been attracted to one another physically or romantically, but always felt comfortable around each other. When he saw her he stood without hesitation and crossed the distance between them. His green eyes searched her face for only a moment before pulling her into a comforting embrace. This surprised the older woman, though she wasn't sure why. It was a very Wayan thing to do in the situation. After a couple of seconds she returned the hug. Once she did he released her and stepped back.

"Thank you," she said. It was all she had to say. He merely nodded and jerked his head to the side.

"She's inside," he told her. "Been quiet the last couple of hours. Not sure if she's asleep,"

"Well, I'll find out,"

"I'll be out here if you need anything," he said. FutureDahlia nodded and slid through the large metal door, closing it behind her with a resounding clunk.

The room was dark, as it had to be, Dahlia knew that. It wasn't malicious. There was no other option. That didn't make the scene feel any more comfortable and it didn't prevent her from being reminded of the cell she had been kept in for months. The hair stood up on the back of her neck and another dizzy spell hit that prompted her to lean against the wall a moment until she could regain her bearings. Once she did she stepped forward. Ambient noise filled the room, but otherwise it was silent and still. Dahlia closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead.

"Phoenix," she beckoned. When there was no response she raised her head. "Phoenix, I know you're sulking in the corner. Come here. _Now_,"

There was a long pause before a shadow shifted across the room. The teenager huddled there stood and turned before slowly walking into the center of the room, each step deliberate and calculated in its echo. Someone had returned her coat to her again along with her gloves so that when she faced Dahlia only the glow spidered across her face and down her neck were visible apart from that of her eyes. The blue pulse cast eerie, sporadic shadows across her features that had been hidden by coat and hair when she had faced the wall. She was going for effect, and it was an effect that would work on most people. Most. Her mother, however, had little patience for it.

"*_You wanted to talk to me, mother?*" _Phoenix asked pleasantly. She made a slow veer so as to slide by Dahlia with a shrug and a flip of her long dark hair on her path to the storage crates. "_*I can't possibly think why,*" _

"Phoenix, I do not have the energy or patience for this game right now!" Dahlia informed Phoenix shortly as her teenager alighted onto her makeshift seat like it was some kind of throne, crossing one leg over the other and clasping her fingers over the top knee idly. The dark haired young woman was apparently fascinated by the ceiling and shrugged.

"*_Game? What Game? If I were playing a game I'd pick somewhere with a view. Any view. Preferably open sky. I don't really think I've done anything to deserve this_," Phoenix stated innocently.

"_For Skyland's sake, Phoenix_!" Dahlia snapped, the sharp edge to her voice jolting the teenager visibly as her head jerked forward and her glowing eyes widened in alarm. Good. It was about time that Phoenix understood some of the gravity of the situation, and the pounding in Dahlia's head did nothing to soften her frayed temper. Having gotten Phoenix's attention she demanded curtly, "Prattucchi. What did you do to him?"

Phoenix blinked and then huffed, surging back to her feet and striding past her mother to resume her restless pacing.

"*_What he deserved_*," she replied tersely. "*_Well…maybe not that. But I was stopped from giving him what was _really_ coming to him, so I had to settle. I improvised," _

"Improvised," Dahlia repeated.

"*_Well, I had part of me back, so I worked with it," _

"Alright, something telepathic. But we already knew that," Dahlia mumbled in frustration. "What did you do? I want to know now,"

"*_Now, now, now!" _Phoenix parroted, "*_Is that all you ever want to say? And you call _me_ impatient!"_

"Phoenix!" Dahlia warned. The teenager backed down from the challenge.

"_*The traitor is going to feel exactly what Lena felt._ Exactly. _I looped him into her memories of what Braxton did to us. I thought it would have to do. But aren't you interested in anything else?" _She asked, her question leading. "*_Anything…closer to home? No one's asked me that. I was hoping you would. Everyone else only wants to know about him. I thought you'd be different, Mother," _

Dahlia let out a long breath and put her hands on her hips.

"Yes," she said "Alright. I'll bite. What's going on, Phoenix? You've never dominated for this long before, so why?"

"*_You don't want to know how?*" _Phoenix asked her.

"It doesn't matter how, I want to know why," Dahlia insisted. "Why Phoenix? Why are you still here?"

"*_Why do you want to know why? What's wrong with me sticking around?*" _Phoenix flared hotly.

Her mother was taken aback. She blinked. Phoenix seemed…hurt. The teenager looked away from her and crossed her arms tightly over her chest, her chin jutting out in a stubborn, sulking manner while she scuffed her boot on the floor. Her mother was dumbstruck for a moment as she searched for what to say. Initially, she couldn't find the words and instead stepped towards her. Suddenly something made a great deal of sense. Phoenix glanced her way briefly before tightening the cross of her arms and looking all the more childish—or child-like. Hesitantly, Dahlia reached out and put a hand on the young woman's shoulder, touching her fingertips to the girl's chin to make her turn and look at her.

"Phoenix," she said gently, "Are you here because of what I said in Prattucchi's room?"

Phoenix set her mouth and shrugged, resolutely not meeting her eye.

"*_You said I didn't stick around because 'I couldn't handle it',*"_ she practically pouted. Dahlia wilted. Her heart sank and she ran her fingers through her hair. The teenager snuck another glance from behind her dark curtain of loose hair, "*_Still think I can't handle it?*"_

"Phoenix, you don't need to prove any points to me," her mother told her.

"*_You're the only one who calls me by a name. You're the only one who doesn't call me 'it'," _Phoenix said quietly, "*_And you don't think I can handle this? That I'm just…just…*"_

"Just what?" Dahlia challenged her gently, but firmly as she guided them both back to the crates to perch on them. "Phoenix, you're part of my daughter. I love you and you know that. But look at this from someone else's view. You are _in_ Lena's head, look at it from _her_ point of view. You do whatever you want to do when you have full control. And then you go away. And then _Lena_ is the one who is left with responsibility and she's the one who has to suffer the consequences in something that she hasn't really done. Think about what would have happened if you had killed Prattucchi. Lena would have woken up in a cell with no idea what happened and no say in what you did,"

"*_I don't get a choice in what she does!*" _Phoenix flared heatedly, leaping to her feet with an angry snarl.

"As far as I know, she hasn't killed anyone without your input," Dahlia reminded her firmly from her seat. Her gaze was steely and her tone brooked no argument. She was one person the Phoenix could never intimidate with her antics and moreover, Phoenix knew it. The blonde woman leaned back against the crates behind her and this time she crossed her arms over her chest. The pounding in her head and the room spinning around her did nothing for her patience, but she held her temper. "I was the one who had to put Lena back together after those Guardians. You disappeared for weeks, and left her with the memories and the guilt. And in the last few years you have done that a lot,"

"*_It's not my fault! She never lets me _do_ anything!*"_

"And can you blame her?"

"*_YES!*"_ Phoenix raged. "*_By the time I get out everything is so…so…she NEVER listens! She's trying to bury me! I'm HERE! I'm not going anywhere, I'm going to FIGHT! Fight for me, fight for her, fight for you! No one will fight but me! I've always protected us, always! I always will!*"_

Dahlia's head felt like it was going to split open. Her stomach lurched and everything seemed to spin, but she ignored it to focus on her task at hand.

"You always have been the defender," She agreed, surprising the teenager who had clearly expected an argument "Even when you two were a child, when you were her imaginary friend you always had her back. But you're not doing that right now. I know that you're trying to, but you're not…you're…not…"

"*_Mother?*" _Phoenix asked worriedly when her mother started to stutter and sway where she sat. Dahlia started to get up only to collapse to her hands and knees, twitching.

"*_Mother!*" _the teenager exclaimed, throwing herself to the ground next to her. FutureDahlia gripped her head and reared up with it before timbering to her side in spasms.

"*_MOTHER!*"_

Wayan burst into the door, summoned by both Phoenix's cry and by the urgent radio message from Mahad, who had been keeping an eye on the security feed from the bridge. He hurried to the blonde's side and hurriedly removed his jacket to try and cushion FutureDahlia's head as she seized. Phoenix scrambled back, staring at her mother and shaking with terror at seeing her in such a state. She tripped back to her feet and stumbled back, her eyes wide and her whole body tense with worry and shock, oblivious to what Wayan was asking her.

The rebel, in the meantime, struggled to multi-task, trying to talk into his radio, prevent his time-travelling friend from coming to injury and try to stop whatever was happening to her all at once. He managed to communicate the urgency to his friends and tried to shout questions at the teenaged Seijinn that she didn't answer. A flash of blue in his peripheral vision managed to catch his attention when he glanced up at the young woman. He did a double take upon realizing that the body language had changed and her eyes were no longer glowing.

"Mom?" Lena Dianne asked in shock before throwing herself to the ground next to her mother as FutureDahlia's movements stilled. "MOM!"

Wayan stared at her a moment as she gently shook FutureDahlia's shoulder. She looked at Wayan with wide eyes filled with concerned fear and confusion.

"What happened?" She asked in a hoarse whisper before her voice gained volume and she grabbed at the material over his shoulder desperately. "What did It do? Wayan, please, please tell me! What happened?! _What did It do?_"

Wayan's mouth opened but he couldn't find the words. He shrugged helplessly and shook his head. Lena Dianne released his shoulder, her hand slapping to the ground next to her as she slumped from her knees to her behind.

"What did..._I_ do?" she breathed in a trembling voice while people swarmed into the room.

* * *

><p>Next chapter we have some ghostly additions to the cast...I'll do my best to get enough work done while I have time to get it up in a more timely manner! Please leave me a review and to everyone who celebrates during the season,<p>

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!


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